Protecting the spirit and camaraderie of Australia's Davis Cup team is more important than selecting the best players for this year's final, according to Lleyton Hewitt, who said yesterday he would support sticking with the current line-up and risking the consequences.
"We have been through the tough times and the good times together and, win or lose, come December, I would rather be in that team," Hewitt said during Australia's 5-0 semi-final sweep against Brazil.
Captain John Newcombe had indicated after Saturday's doubles win by Sandon Stolle and Mark Woodforde that he favored retaining the semi-final quartet for the likely trip to Barcelona in December.
"I think the team atmosphere and the camaraderie that we have got is fantastic," Hewitt continued. "Everyone was pulling for Sandon to get through yesterday because we are just so close, and I have got all confidence that the team that we've got now can get the job done. I would like to be in that atmosphere, win or lose."
In what can only be interpreted as another vote of no-confidence in the absent Mark Philippoussis, just a week after Pat Rafter accused the Victorian of "jerking around" his erstwhile teammates, Hewitt said relations between Philippoussis and the rest of the squad would have to be "sorted out" before he would be welcomed back among the players he led to cup victory last December in Nice.
"Obviously, the connections or the conversations that went on before this week were pretty ordinary, and that is going to have to get fixed," Hewitt said. "With a new captain and coach coming in next year, it is going to be a whole different ball game. They are going to have to set down the law right from the start and you have to put yourself on the line every time for your country. You can't be in and out of some matches."
Hewitt also predicted Philippoussis would be a future grand slam winner and possible No.1, but rated him a rather less successful communicator.
"We have no real understanding why he is not even coming up here and supporting, or whatever," Hewitt said. "We just want to keep in the loop on everything. We want to know if we have done something wrong as a team or if Newk and Rochey have got offside of him: maybe we can fix it for the future. Until he sort of opens up to that, we are going to struggle. It's just disappointing at the moment because obviously he is a great player. He would be great in the future to have on our team, for sure, but obviously he has to mend a lot of things, I think, before he comes back on."
Newcombe has threatened several times over the past week to speak his mind fully on the issue, but yesterday backed away from the chance despite Australia having progressed safely to its second successive final in what will be his last tie as captain, against the winner of next weekend's semi-final between Spain and a depleted United States team on the slowest claycourt the Spaniards could find.
Rafter was also relatively muted, while praising the team spirit among the Australians. "We love and we feel very, very comfortable with the guys we've got," he said. "There's always good vibes and good positive energy and I think that's very important if you want to win.
"We've had our negative energy around the Davis Cup before and we've seen how it's affected us. At this stage, it's just been great, and I don't know if we want to change anything right now about it. We really haven't talked about how we're going to handle this whole situation yet."
Tennis Australia president Geoff Pollard, meanwhile, ruled out intervening if the selection panel - Newcombe, Roche and Allan Stone - did not choose the supposed "best team" for the final, and also played down the need for a mediator.
He said Philippoussis had been a significant contributor to the team over several years "and I certainly hope he'll play a lot more for us".
"I think a lot of the issues are down to communication, and the good thing was the other day when Mark actually spoke on television himself," Pollard said. "We need to have direct communication with Mark, not indirectly. I don't like my words being translated by (management company) Octagon to his father, who translates them to Mark and I'm sure (the same goes) for Newcombe."
Asked whether he would support the selection of a player whom other team members may not welcome, Pollard said: "I don't know that that's a true statement. I think what they have said, as I said, is the communication lines need to be a bit better than they've been over the past 12 months."
Philippoussis responded to Rafter's criticisms last Wednesday, saying he was fatigued after Wimbledon and his knee was sore due to a fall in his quarter-final loss to Andre Agassi.
He said he had played in the first-round tie against Switzerland when not fully fit to help out because Rafter was unavailable, and had to withdraw from two subsequent tournaments as a consequence.