By Leo Schlink
The Sunday Telegraph
26 November 2000
Australian tennis hero Pat Rafter has taken another snipe at rival Mark Philippoussis on the eve of Australia's Davis Cup defence by saying the Aussies would rather lose without him than win with him.
This follows comments by Scud's new caoch Peter McNamara who said last week: "Mark (has to) look after his own interests for a change and not the interests of (Davis Cup coaches) John Newcombe and Tony Roche.
"As far as I'm concerned I want Mark Philippoussis to win a grand slam. The Davis Cup might not be in that schedule for him to be the best player he can be."
Australia play Spain in Barcelona from December 8-10 and Rafter has emphasised Australia should always put Davis Cup first rather than personal aspirations.
"We never want to get the American system where players pick and choose when they're going to play," Rafter said. "Australia has never been like that. Unfortunately, Newk and Rochey have been unfairly attacked again. We're still trying to work out the motive for 'Macca' saying what he did, but if there's a positive to come out of a negative situation it's that, at last, Mark has finally come out and given the real reason he doesn't always want to play. It is his schedule. That is an understandable issue for Mark and I respect the fact it is now in the open. Who knows what's going to happen in Barcelona in the final in a couple of weeks, but we resolved back in Brisbane after the semi-final that we were prepared to go in with that team and take whatever result. If this means losing with Lleyton, Mark Woodforde, Sandon Stolle and me playing, so be it. We are a team who works together. That hasn't changed. The team is the most important thing and it's bigger than any individual, no matter how good they are."
Aside from the Philippoussis issue the Australians are preparing well for their crack at glory.
"The training camp in Marbella has been excellent so far," Rafter said. "There's a great atmosphere and the hotel facilities are very good. They've given us a lot of good courts to use and they've been prepared they way we think is similar to the surface the Spanish will produce for the final. Lleyton has been doing up to three hours work a day, which is very encouraging with the health problems he's had lately. Weve got a fantastic bunch of blokes here and the weather has been great, clear and about 20 degrees most days. Frommy (Richard Fromberg) is here working his butt off, along with Paul Kilderry, James Sekulov and young Adam Kennedy, an Australian kid who's over in the US at college. He's here to help us out as well. Darren Cahill, Muddy (Mark Waters), Andreas (Bizas) and Fenton Coull are all here as well helping out Rochey with everything. Apart from getting used to the clay again, we're really enjoying each other's company and the team spirit is great. It's a factor that has served us well in the past and we know we're going to need everything in our favour in Barcelona."