Pioline stops brave Hewitt
By Australian Tennis Magazine Editor Paul Macpherson
Cedric Pioline has scored an important psychological victory over Lleyton Hewitt leading
into the Davis Cup Final. In an epic third-round match at the Paris Indoor, Pioline won a
dramatic third-set tiebreak to snap a two-match
losing streak against the 18-year-old. The victory was enormously important for Pioline,
who would have headed into the Final with a 0-3 career record against Hewitt had he not
won today. Hewitt was brave in defeat He saved four consecutive match points in the
third-set tiebreak after going down two points to six. He clawed his way back
to six points all before Pioline steadied to win the next two points, and the match.
Earlier in the set Hewitt was on course for victory when he broke Pioline in the third
game of the final set. And, showing that he was not afraid to kill off the Frenchman, he
held serve to love in the following game to skip away
to a 3-1 lead. At 4-3 up Hewitt fought off break point at 30/40, winning three consecutive
points to close out the game. Then, needing only to hold serve at 5-4, Hewitt found
himself down 15-40. He saved the first break point
but then Pioline claimed the vital break to square the match at 5-5.
Hewitt faced a nervous moment serving at 5-6 to take the match to a deciding tiebreak. He
slipped to 15-30 before winning the next three points to take the game and level the match
at 6-6. Pioline advances to meet Michael Chang
in the quarter-finals.
Seeded 15th, Pioline beat young Australian Lleyton Hewit 7-6 3-6 7-6 in a hardfought
foretaste of the Davis Cup final. Lapentti, seeded 11th, beat Costa 6-2 7-5.
From Reuters, here's an item on the French DC Team:
Forget delays naming French team for Davis Cup
PARIS, Nov 4 (Reuters) - French captain Guy Forget said on Thursday he had not yet
finalised his team for next month's Davis Cup final against Australia in Nice.
Forget told a press conference he would probably call up Cedric Pioline, Sebastien
Grosjean, Fabrice Santoro and Olivier Delaitre, but that he had yet to make a decision
between in-form Nicolas Escude, Arnaud Clement and Arnaud Di Pasquale. The French
captain, who won the trophy in 1991 as a player, was at the Paris Open and saw Pioline,
his first choice for the singles, beat Lleyton Hewitt, one of seven players named in the
Australian squad.