October 16, 2000

The Colonial Classic's non-negotiable refusal to yield to pressure to include Mark Philippoussis in January's field may confine the world's No.13-ranked player to a week on the practice court immediately before the Australian Open.

Despite Philippoussis' usual preference to prepare for a grand slam by playing an exhibition rather than an official tour event, Kooyong organiser Colin Stubs has not wavered in his vow to exclude Philippoussis, who withdrew from this year's final citing a neck injury and was criticised for his failure to appear and explain his no-show to a disgruntled crowd.

The 2001 field will be announced at Kooyong tomorrow and, while reluctant to revisit January's unfortunate events, Stubs is unapologetic that, even allowing for the possibility of withdrawals before January10, Philippoussis will not be back.

Stubs confirmed he had been contacted by Philippoussis' management company, Octagon, in the hope of a change of heart. ``It's nothing to do with being vindictive or unforgiving or anything like that. I just don't need to take that sort of risk again,'' Stubs said. ``A lot of sponsors and box-holders have been very supportive, but there has been some fallout.''

Stubs also was adamant there is no threat to the future of the Classic, which survived five years of losses and then a
waterlogged relocation to Melbourne Park in 1993. This year, Richard Fromberg and Karim Alami substituted at the last minute for Philippoussis and Andre Agassi, who declined to play a replacement exhibition match against Pete Sampras.

``This is a hiccup which a business, as this is, has to deal with,'' Stubs said. ``But we're not dwelling on that. I really want to focus on, `OK, we acknowledge we had a bad day at the office, but we've done all the right things since and we're moving forward'.''

Octagon's John McCurdy emphasised that Philippoussis had not been banned from the Classic, merely not invited for 2001, and said a change of preparation should not harm his Open chances.

``Mark's been a big supporter of the event in the past, and obviously he's disappointed with some of the controversy
surrounding Kooyong last year because he did have a legitimate injury two days prior to the Australian Open and that was his main focus at that time,'' McCurdy said.

``As far as the event goes this year, he hasn't been invited at this stage but I'm not sure exactly how it's going to pan out. If he's not playing that, he may choose to just train and prepare in Melbourne.

``To be honest, I think it wouldn't hurt for Mark to do something a little bit different this year. He's prepared a certain way for the past couple of years and he's aiming to have a great result at the Australian Open, so it might be good for him to try something a little different.''

McCurdy also revealed that Lleyton Hewitt's summer program remains unconfirmed, with the teenager's hectic year set to culminate with the Masters Cup and the Davis Cup final in successive weeks.

Hewitt, who has been sidelined with a viral infection, will not arrive home until mid-December, leaving only a short off-season break. He is the defending champion at both the AAPT Championships in Adelaide and the Sydney International.

``Lleyton's got to look at where he's going to prepare for the Australian Open because obviously that's his main focus and he may not want as much tennis as he had last year leading into it, so that's got to be taken into consideration,'' McCurdy said.

``He played singles and doubles in both events, which meant a heap of matches. At the time, that worked well for him, but where he's at this year, it's probably going to depend a bit on how he's feeling at the end of the year, with only a couple of weeks' break around Christmas before he starts again.''

Meanwhile, as well as the new mixed doubles scoring system set to be trialled at Melbourne Park, an experimental
best-of-five short sets scoring format for women's matches will begin at this week's Australian Unity International in Brisbane. The winner of four games, rather than six, will claim each set, although there must still be a margin of two games or a tiebreak played.

Tennis Australia president Geoff Pollard said the system, designed to increase the number of crucial points during a match without shortening it, would be trialled at all International Tennis Federation satellite and challenger tournaments held before December17, including the six to be staged in Australia.

``Playing additional sets allows more opportunities for fresh starts, momentum changes and exciting points which could alter the direction of a match,'' Pollard said, adding that the ITF would assess the trial on the basis of feedback from players, coaches, tennis officials and spectators.