Lleyton Hewitt on Davis Cup: "It's a flaw in the system"
Llyeton Hewitt led Australia's Davis Cup team to the final in Malaga. In view of the current format of the team competition, the former world number one is not completely satisfied.
by Michael Rothschädl
last edit: Nov 29, 2022, 11:30 am
Actually, Lleyton Hewitt can be quite satisfied with the past few days. The former world no. And thus crowned Davis Cup champions.
But this is exactly the reason why Hewitt, in addition to the disappointment of the defeat in the final on Sunday, also criticized the system. "Everyone knows my feelings," said the team boss. "Coming here this week, for example, I was disappointed for the Dutch team. They have two top-notch doubles players who work hard all year round to perform on the 'so-called' biggest stage of the year and then they don't get it one chance to play a game." Australia had already defeated the Netherlands in the quarterfinals after the two singles.
Hewitt unhappy, Haggerty happy
"I thought the whole time that there was a flaw in this system and nobody listens to me," said the former world number one. "So I can talk until I turn blue, but nothing changes right now. We just always put band-aids on them - well, we don't, but certain people put band-aids on problems. It doesn't solve the problem," Hewitt said. Who finds it "not right" that doubles players don't even get a chance in the event of two individual wins.
On the other hand, those responsible - for example in the person of ITF boss David Haggerty - were completely satisfied: "It was a very exciting year, with Kosmos we were able to stabilize the format. It works for the fans, for the players and for tennis ' said the tennis official. "I think we're very, very happy with the format and the changes. That doesn't mean we can't think about it at some point in the future, but we think the most important thing is to stabilize. The players like that , that's what they told us." However, not everyone seems to see it that way.