SPAIN EYES OUTDOOR VENUE TO BLUNT PHILIPPOUSSIS

Sportscentral

24^th July 2000

SANTANDER, Spain, July 24 AAP-AFP - Fear of Mark Philippoussis is a major reason why Spain is considering staging its Davis Cup final against Australia outdoors even though it'll be mid-winter.
While Barcelona had been favoured to host the December 8-10 final, Spain is now talk of moving it as far south as the Canary Islands in order to play outside.
There's no guarantee Philippoussis will even be selected in John Newcombe's Australian team for the final after the anger generated by his late withdrawal from the semi-final.
But the Scud clearly scared the Spaniards with his crushing victories on an indoor clay court to win the Cup final against France in Nice last year.
They believe his power game can be better blunted by playing on an outdoor clay court as they chase the first Cup title in their tennis history.
Rising Spanish star Juan Carlos Ferrero made no bones about the players' preference to go further south than Barcelona or Madrid to play outdoors after helping his team to a 5-0 whitewash of their semi-final against the United States here today.
"It (the final) would be better outdoors," said Ferrero.
"Last year the final was indoors and Australia won it. It will be a very hard final. To play outdoors would be a bit more of an advantage for us.
"When you play indoors there's no wind and the sound of the ball with Philippoussis (Mark), it's terrible. It seems more than it is.
"If you play outdoors it's slower, with a good rebound even if it's slow. Albert (Costa) has already played (Pat) Rafter on hard court ... we're well prepared for that type of final." Seville and Valencia are other cities being named as possible venues with a warmer winter climate than Barcelona.
"In principle we would like to play outdoors. The players and the members of the technical group would rather play outdoors. And the president of the Spanish Federation will certainly support us," said Spanish team captain Juan Duarte.
While Newcombe has indicated a preference to stiock with his semi-final team of Rafter, Lleyton Hewitt, Mark Woodforde and Sandon Stolle, Duarte is spoilt for choice for the final.
He has a lineup of top players including Carlos Moya, Francisco Clavet and Felix Mantilla in addition to current team Alex Corretja, Carlos Costa, Ferrero and Juan Balcells.
The Spaniards failed in their two previous Cup final bids in 1965 and 1967 - both away on grass at the hands of Australia.
Australia, with 27 titles are second only to the United States' 31 in this event.
Australia lead Spain 3-0 on previous meetings. They last met at Brisbane in 1967, when Roy Emerson, Newcombe and Tony Roche defeated Manuel Santana and Manuel Orantes. In 1965 at Sydney, Santana, Juan Gisbert and Juan Arilla were defeated by an Australian team including Fred Stolle.
The first meeting between the two nations in the 1922 World Group Final was won 4-1 by Australia.
Today Ferrero and Balcells showed how dangerous they can be on clay by coming from a set down to win their dead rubbers against Vince Spadea and Jan-Michael Gambill.
Ferrero downed Spadea 4-6 6-1 6-4, and was followed by Balcells, who saw off Wimbledon quarter-finalist Jan-Michael Gambill 1-6 7-6 (7-2) 6-4, handing the United States their first 5-0 defeat since the 1997 final against Sweden.
"If they (Spain) continue to play like that they can win the whole thing," said McEnroe after Spadea went down.
"Australia are a good team, they have great players. But they have a good chance. The US wishes them good luck."
But following Gambill's defeat the US captain headed for Santander airport for a flight home, facing a $US10,000 ($A17,100) fine from the International Tennis Federation for failing to attend the mandatory press conference.
McEnroe's attitude drew criticism from Spanish captain Javier Duarte, who accused the former world number one of failing to support his team and being too vocal during the tie.
"It's quite clear for me. McEnroe as a tennis man we know what he is. When you are No. 1 it's okay. But when you are a captain that has not played for seven years, you have to stick to the point and to fight for your team and that's it.
"For him, this is degrading, so to say, but it shouldn't be. He should be proud of being the captain. He should help his players. Personally I think he is angry about (Pete) Sampras and (Andre) Agassi. So I think he is feeling awful for that perhaps more than the defeat."

Scud's missiles concern Spain
Sportstoday

SANTANDER, SPAIN
Tuesday 25 July 2000
Fear of Mark Philippoussis is a major reason why Spain is considering staging its Davis Cup final against Australia outdoors even though it will be mid-winter.
While Barcelona had been favored to host the December 8-10 final, Spain is now talking of moving it as far south as the Canary Islands in order to play outside.
There's no guarantee Philippoussis will even be selected in John Newcombe's Australian team for the final after the anger generated by his late withdrawal from the semi-final.
But the Scud clearly scared the Spaniards with his crushing victories on an indoor clay court to win the cup final against France in Nice last year.
They believe his power game can be better blunted by playing on an outdoor clay court as they chase the first cup title in their tennis history.
Rising Spanish star Juan Carlos Ferrero made no bones about the players' preference to go further south than Barcelona or Madrid to play outdoors after helping his team to a 5-0 whitewash of its semi-final against the United States here yesterday.
"It (the final) would be better outdoors," said Ferrero. "Last year the final was indoors and Australia won it. It will be a very hard final. To play outdoors would be a bit more of an advantage for us.
"When you play indoors there's no wind and the sound of the ball with Philippoussis, it's terrible. It seems more than it is.
"If you play outdoors it's slower, with a good rebound even if it's slow. Albert (Costa) has already played (Pat) Rafter on hard court ... we're well prepared for that type of final."
Seville and Valencia are other cities being named as possible venues with a warmer winter climate than Barcelona.
Australian captain Newcombe was yesterday bemused by the suggestion Spain could get an advantage from playing outdoors.
"There's no difference," he said. "I don't know what they are going on about, clay is clay whether it's indoors or outdoors. They can play wherever they like. We'll be ready."
Newcombe wasn't ready to discuss the likelihood of Philippoussis getting a recall for the final, saying only: "That's five months away."
But, during the recent semi-final win over Brazil he indicated a preference for sticking with Rafter, Lleyton Hewitt, Mark Woodforde and Sandon Stolle.
Spain is spoilt for choice of players, with top players Carlos Moya, Francisco Clavet and Felix Mantilla in addition to the current team of Alex Corretja, Carlos Costa, Ferrero and Juan Balcells.
Newcombe tipped Spain to pick Ferrero and Corretja as singles players and Corretja and Balcells in doubles.
The Spaniards failed in their two previous cup final bids in 1965 and 1967 - both away on grass at the hands of Australia.
Australia, with 27 titles, is second only to the United States in this event, which has 31.
Australia leads Spain 3-0 on previous meetings. The two countries last met at Brisbane in 1967, when Roy Emerson, Newcombe and Tony Roche defeated Manuel Santana and Manuel Orantes.
But Ferrero and Balcells yesterday showed how dangerous they can be on clay, both bouncing back from a set down to win their dead rubbers against Vince Spadea and Jan-Michael Gambill, respectively.
Ferrero downed Spadea 4-6, 6-1, 6-4, and was followed by Balcells, who finished off Wimbledon quarter-finalist Gambill 1-6, 7-6 (7-2), 6-4, handing the United States its first 5-0 defeat since the 1997 final against Sweden.
Following Gambill's defeat US captain John McEnroe headed straight for Santander airport for a flight home, facing a $17,100 fine from the International Tennis Federation for failing to attend the mandatory press conference.
McEnroe's attitude drew criticism from Spanish captain Javier Duarte, who accused the former world No.1 of failing to support his team and being too vocal during the tie.
"It's quite clear for me. McEnroe as a tennis man we know what he is. When you are No.1 it's OK. But when you are a captain that has not played for seven years, you have to stick to the point and to fight for your team and that's it.
"For him, this is degrading, so to say, but it shouldn't be. He should be proud of being the captain. He should help his players. Personally, I think he is angry about (Pete) Sampras and (Andre) Agassi. So I think he is feeling awful for that perhaps more than the defeat."

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