sports.news.com
By JOHN THIRSK
05sep00

MARK Philippoussis is likely to be the loneliest man at the Olympic village when the Australian team arrives there next week.

None of the players wants to share a room with Philippoussis as the rift over his Davis Cup availability intensifies.
Tennis Australia is refusing to buy into the simmering row, which is likely to erupt when the players are given their accommodation allocation at the Olympic Games Village in three weeks.
Philippoussis and Rafter refused to speak to each other at the US Open following Rafter's criticism of his fellow Davis Cup player for "jerking the team around" because of his late withdrawal from the semi-final tie against Brazil in July.
Such is the resentment among the players that Philippoussis's other Olympic Games teammates -- Lleyton Hewitt, Mark Woodforde, Todd Woodbridge, Andrew Ilie and Rafter -- would not want to draw the short straw of sharing with him.
TA president, Geoff Pollard, who acted as a successful negotiator to get Philippoussis back into the Davis Cup fold after the team's "Mildura Massacre" two years ago, said he would not intervene if there was an accommodation dispute at the Olympics.
"The room allocation hasn't got anything to do with TA," Pollard said.
"It's not our event and not a TA team -- we only recommend an Olympic Games team to the AOC, and it's up to the team manager, Fenton Coull and the AOC over who shares rooms.
"I'm certainly not going to comment on what players are sharing rooms on privacy and security measures, and I doubt whether the AOC would release those details."
An AOC spokesperson told The Daily Telegraph that Philippoussis had not requested accommodation outside the Olympic village and would be staying with the rest of the team.
"Even if Mark requested a single room it would not be possible," the spokesperson said.
"All athletes' rooms are on a share basis but we are not going to divulge on who is sharing rooms.
"The IOC allocated each nation a limited allocation of rooms."
Coach Tony Roche wouldn't even think about sharing with Philippoussis so that leaves either team manager Coull or physiotherapist Andrea Bisaz to avert team dissension over the issue.
Repeated requests for an interview with Philippoussis on his thoughts about representing Australia in the Olympic Games were denied.
Faxes sent to his agents, Octagon, in Washington were not answered but a spokesperson for the Association of Tennis Professionals said Philippoussis's agents were not allowing their client to do any interviews.
TA have a policy that Coull cannot talk to the media about the accommodation.
A TA spokesperson added that while Davis Cup players had their individual rooms, all the players selected for the Olympic Games were aware of, and agreed with, a share arrangement at the Village.
The likely scenario about who will share rooms will be discussed between Coull and his team when they go into a camp in Sydney next week.
When Philippoussis competed as one of the four players at the Atlanta Olympics, four years ago, he shared a room with Mark Woodforde, while Jason Stoltenberg was Todd Woodbridge's roommate.
But there were no problems at that time.
Woodforde was the most outspoken of Philippoussis's critics two years ago in Mildura and that puts him, along with Rafter, out of the equation.
Hewitt thinks the world of Rafter and they will probably share a room.
The Woodies are chasing back-to-back gold medals in the doubles, so it makes sense they room together, while Ilie has not had Philippoussis among his best mates since some heated clashes during their junior days in Melbourne.