Tennis Match Magazine - February 2000


"Face it, mate," says Australian Open chairman Paul McNamee, "we're a hospitable people. Aussies like being hosts. We enjoy it when people come over and have a good time. So naturally, we've done that with our tournament by putting in a surface that the whole world can play on. It's made the event bigger than ever. We're on TV in 130 countries. The stands are full."

But even as McNamee gives off the chummy smile that makes Australians so endearing, he also knows that the growth of his tournament has come at the expense of domestic content. There was a time when the men's field of the Australian Open could just as well have been called the Australian Closed. During the 31 years between 1946 and 1976, Australians won the event 27 times. But in the 23 subsequent years, the best effort Australia could make was when Pat Cash reached consecutive finals in 1987 (the last year it was held on grass) and '88.

"No question, we always had an edge when it was played on the surface we learned to play on-grass," says MacNamee. "And we are also naturally most familiar with the Australian summer, which can get exceptionally hot."

Of course, Australia's quarter-century drought at its national championship is intertwined with its decline as tennis' dominant nation. From the '50s through the '70s, from Frank Sedgman and Ken MacGregor, Lew Hoad and Ken Rosewall, Mal Anderson and Ashley Cooper, Neale Fraser and Rod Laver, Roy Emerson and Fred Stolle, John Newcombe and Tony Roche, Australian champions rolled off the line with mind-numbing, net-rushing and bar-charging frequency.

"We had a good run, but I think by the late '60s Australia was growing as a nation and young people, particularly the athletically-inclined ones, were thinking of activities other than tennis," says three-time Australian winner Rod Laver (1960, '62 and '69). "Rugby, golf, soccer and cricket were taking people away from tennis."

John Newcombe, a two-time Aussie Open champ ('73, '75), thinks a vital link was severed when for a five-year period in the early Open era (1968-'72), the Byzantine politics of tennis precluded top Australians from playing Davis Cup. "The chain was cut, and we couldn't pass on the wisdom to the next generation," he says. Add in the growth of other tennis nations and the exit of Australian tennis majordomo Harry Hopman in 1969, and it's easy to see how the dynasty tumbled.

As Australia fell, others rose. Davis Cup, which was the cornerstone of the Australian tennis empire, featured less than 50 nations before the Open Era. By 1999, 129 nations fielded Davis Cup teams.

But Davis Cup remains the stomping ground for fueling Australian ambitions. As the captain of the team that at press time had advanced to the finals of the 1999 competition, Newcombe believes Australia's resurgence in international team play has renewed the hopes of its players.

"When Tony [Roche] and I took over the Davis Cup in 1994, our players had a 3-13 record in five-setters over the previous five years," says Newcombe. "The self-belief was not there. Sometimes you need to fall down in order to rise up and stand taller than you did before. In September '95, we lost to Hungary and fell out of the World Group. The media and the public were killing us and we said to the boys that this was their time to stand tall. The boys started to believe they could be top ten."

Now, more than a decade into the Australian Open's new era, Australia is sporting legitimate contenders who've come of age on hardcourts similar to those at Melbourne Park. Four years ago at the Australian Open, Mark Philippoussis shocked the tennis world by eliminating Pete Sampras in straight sets in the third round. Philippoussis' impressive performance, punctuated by 29 service aces, dramatically raised expectations that he would be the next great Aussie champ. Philippoussis' big serve and heavy ground game are perfect weapons for Rebound Ace. But much to the displeasure of the natives who cheer him on, he has yet to win a Grand Slam title, his best finish to date being a run to the final of the '98 U.S. Open, where he lost to fellow countryman Patrick Rafter.

"It's always interesting to see the way boys come up in pairs," says two-time Aussie finalist ('64, '65) Fred Stolle. "In a way, all the attention around Philippoussis after that win over Sampras helped motivate Patrick-and just a couple of years before Mark's win over Pete, people had been talking up Rafter. So that competitive aspect can really get an Aussie going."

By dint of winning two straight U.S. Opens, Rafter has emerged as Australia's exemplary local hero, as much a personification of his country's values and desires as Tim Henman is in Great Britain during Wimbledon. But the demands of succeeding in his own backyard have weighed heavily on Rafter, who has never advanced past the fourth round here. Compounding the pressures at this year's event is Rafter's recovery from rotator cuff surgery this past fall.

"Pat's done an incredible job," says Laver. "These days, it's much more difficult to be a classic Aussie netrusher on today's surfaces and against today's groundstrokers than it was when we played. Pat's worked hard to bring his game around, and we've seen how this pays off in building up to those U.S. Opens. But maybe when he gets home, with friends and family around, maybe his practice slacks off, or he gets distracted."

Injuries have also gotten the better of Philippoussis. Up a set against Sampras in the quarters of Wimbledon last year, he hurt his knee and was forced to default. Then, a week prior to the U.S. Open, Philippoussis twisted his ankle while playing basketball, and finally came back to the tour late in the year. "Assuming he's healthy, it's all about confidence for Mark," says Laver. "He can really string together great points."

Another ascending Aussie is young Lleyton Hewitt, who plays a scrappy, all-court game reminiscent of Michael Chang. Though Hewitt himself has admitted how daunting it is to win seven matches in a Grand Slam, his appetite for the big occasion and love of Melbourne Park could also make him a factor at this year's event.

"There's no tournament I'd rather win more than the Australian," he says. "It's my Slam. An Australian hasn't won it for so long, as well. I just love playing there, walking on court, the changing rooms, there's history there. I've gone and watched that Slam since I was five or six years old every day. To be a part of it now, one day to win it, that would be the best thing."

Australia is nicknamed "Oz," homage to a belief that the island continent is an idyllic paradise. Surely, for Rafter, Philippoussis and Hewitt, there would be nothing better than to emerge as the Wizard of Oz. But while finding that yellow fuzzyball road will not be easy (or, in this reporter's opinion, likely, at least this year), should an Aussie man strike gold, tennis would soar Down Under once again as it did in the glory years. "It would be incredible for Australia for one of our guys to win that title," says Laver. "Everything's so much bigger now. It could take the game to wonderful new levels of popularity."