Australia captain Lleyton Hewitt slams “stupid” Davis Cup format despite his team qualifying for finals in Malaga
Lleyton Hewitt is unhappy about players being forced to play at the Davis Cup, a high-intensity tournament, just two days after a Grand Slam.
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Lleyton Hewitt slams Davis Cup format (Images via Reuters, Davis Cup)
The group stage of the 2024 Davis Cup Finals has concluded with the eight teams qualifying for the quarterfinals. Lleyton Hewitt-led Australia made it to the last eight and will go to Malaga to fight for the title. Despite their qualification, the Australian captain was unhappy with the tournament’s current format.
The Davis Cup action got underway two days, not long after the end of the US Open. This led to quite a few players, including US Open champion Jannik Sinner, giving the tournament a miss. Australia missed the services of Alex de Minaur, who enjoyed a quarterfinal run in New York.
Even among the players who donned the yellow and green, there were a few tired faces. Alexei Popyrin, who came into the tournament after a tiring hard court North American swing, lost his first match to France’s Ugo Humbert. Pointing to the same, Hewitt claimed that his players were “destroyed” and he was proud of them for turning up.
This week, a number of our guys were pretty much destroyed. It would have been very easy for some of my guys not to come here this week, but they did it, they put on the green and gold and did everything I asked them to do. I’m very proud of them.Lleyton Hewitt said (H/T: We Love Tennis)
The Australian captain, a member of the 1999 and 2003 Davis Cup winning teams, then went on to talk about the real problem as he ridiculed the current format.
Lleyton Hewitt tears apart organizers for making players play on Tuesday
Lleyton Hewitt tore apart the Davis Cup organizers for their stupid and ridiculous format. The Australian said while it has always been the case of playing immediately after a Grand Slam tournament, starting the tournament on Tuesday is even more troublesome.
It’s not easy to ask players to play two days after a Grand Slam. In the old format, I had to do it too, but you had until Friday to rest: now you have to play on Tuesday, it’s ridiculous. But that’s the stupid part of this format, isn’t it? I can keep saying it, but the format is what it is.Lleyton Hewitt expressed
Australia played with Alexei Popyrn, Max Purcell, Matthew Ebden, Thanasi Kokkinakis, and Jordan Thompson in the squad. In the absence of Alex de Minaur, Popyrin and Kokkinakis stepped up, notching up three wins in four matches.
The Lleyton Hewitt-led team shrugged off France 2-1 in their opening encounter and backed it up with a 3-0 win over the Czech Republic to ensure a top-two finish. Australia finished second in their group and will meet either Italy or the USA in the quarterfinals.
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Ritesh Pathak
(2150 Articles Published)