Sports.news - 12^th December 1999

Of all the great things to emerge from Australia's 3-2 Davis Cup final win over France, few would top the performance of Mark Philippoussis.

For somebody who hadn't played Davis Cup for seven months, Mark handled the pressure very well.

There have been comparisons between my match against Cedric Pioline in 1997 and Mark's against Cedric last week.

The biggest difference was pressure. My match was in the first round in Australia. Mark's was in the final, away from home, and he had a lot more pressure on him.

I was really impressed with the way he handled the situation and he never looked like panicking. If Mark can hold hold it together in a similar way over two weeks, it is only a matter of time before he wins a Grand Slam title.

He showed he had it in him at the US Open last year and would have gained a lot of confidence out of the Davis Cup final.

Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde also rose to the occasion under pressure. With the tie level at 1-1, Australia needed a win from the Woodies and, after a difficult start, the boys fired up and changed the momentum of the tie.

If Australia had lost that match there would have been even more pressure on Mark and Lleyton Hewitt going into the last day.

The boys really deserved their win. It was a complete team effort and I don't think Lleyton should be too hard on himself over his loss to Pioline.

The challenge for us all now is to defend the Cup next year.

If everything goes to plan, I want to play against Switzerland in the first round in February, but I won't be rushing back if my shoulder is not up to it.

I'd be happy to play doubles with Mark Philippoussis if that's what Newk (John Newcombe) has in mind. We've played together quite a bit before in the past and would be a good combination in Davis Cup.

But it's up to Mark. If he doesn't want to play both singles and doubles, I can understand that.

I'm impressed with the ATP Tour's new ranking system, but I think they've mucked up the format with the old Super 9s, which will be known as the Masters Series.

The Super 9s, the nine biggest tournaments outside the Grand Slams, are now mandatory for players with rankings high enough to play them. But the scheduling of the new events is wrong.

The top players will be automatically entered to play them, regardless of preference, and will have to travel all over the place just to meet that obligation, which dosn't help anybody.

I won't be chasing a ranking. If that means not playing some of those tournaments when the schedule doesn't fit what I need to be doing, so be it.

There will be players penalised for not performing well in the Masters series and others for missing them, but there will be some who will benefit by not playing them.

If your ranking is not good enough to get you into a Masters series, you can go off and play nine other events and if you do well, end up just outside the top 10.
The shoulder is coming along pretty well but I pulled up a bit sore after hitting a couple fo times last week. The arm hurt in the area around the shoulder and it's now a matter of making sure I don't over-use it and remain patient.

I haven't entered the Australian Open singles, but I'm hoping to get a wild card if the shoulder recovers enough to play the Grand Slam event.

I won't know if I'll be able to do that for a while yet.

If I can't play singles, I'd like to defend the doubles title.

Pat, Scud new Woodies
By JOHN THIRSK

9dec99

FORMER doubles partners Pat Rafter and Mark Philippoussis could be reunited as our Davis Cup pairing as captain John Newcombe yesterday began to formulate his tactics for next year's defence of the trophy.

It is an option

Newcombe is considering to gain the maximum benefit from a rule change to next year's competition, which will allow the replacement
of a player in the reverse singles.

The addition of an extra singles player in the team would reduce the burden on any player who wanted to play in singles and doubles.

Australia need to find a new doubles combination to replace the Woodies after 34-year-old Mark Woodforde indicated he intended to retire from Davis Cup after the weekend's success.

Woodforde and Todd Woodbridge have a 15-2 cup record.

Woodbridge should keep his place in the squad but the doubles pairing could be subject to experimentation by Newcombe in training before
next year's opening tie against Switzerland.

"Tactically for us it is better to go with three singles players and one doubles player," Newcombe said yesterday after arriving back in
Sydney from France.

"Two would play singles on the first day, then maybe the third singles competitor plays doubles, then we could change someone and swap that third other player for the singles on the third day.

"It depends on who we play, the court surface and who we have available."

Newcombe nominated Philippoussis, Rafter, Lleyton Hewitt and a doubles player as the "perfect team".

While Woodbridge, a winner of nine grand slam doubles titles and a career 59 events, would have first claim on a doubles berth, the
Rafter-Philippoussis pairing looms as a real option.

They have a 59-25 match record, including three finals.

They won at the Queen's Club (1997) and appeared in seven semi-finals including Wimbledon (1995) and the US Open (1996).

Sandon Stolle, who played doubles in Brisbane in the semi-final win against the Russians, is also a contender.

Newcombe is still anxious about when Rafter will be fit enough to rejoin the team. "That's a question we will not know the answer to
until mid-January," he said. "If I was to advise Patrick whether he should play singles at the Australian Open next month will depend on
how hard he is hitting the ball at the moment."

"If he doesn't have enough time (to be fit for singles), then my advice would be just play doubles at the Open.

"The last thing he wants to do is rush back and get an injury to another part of his body when he hasn't played since the US Open
last August."

Why Scud party knockers deserve a champagne spray
COMMENT by RICHARD HINDS

A week ago while being interviewed on a radio sports show, Davis Cup captain John Newcombe told one of the many amusing anecdotes accumulated during what we euphemistically call his ''colourful career''.

It was the one about the morning he arrived at his hotel in a state we endearingly refer to as ''worse for wear''.

Newk was staying in room 306 but mistakenly entered the unlocked room 206.
Not wanting to disturb his roommate, Tony Roche, the moustachioed heart-throb cleaned his teeth in the dark and was about to climb beneath the sheets when he was discovered by a startled guest.

Boom, boom! The interviewers cracked up. The talk-back callers loved it. Good ol' Newk. Those were the days. A week later Newcombe's Davis Cup team, including the once-reluctant Mark Philippoussis, celebrated its triumph in time-honoured fashion.

Yes, time-honoured because - as difficult as the new-age wowsers of the tea-sipping Howard era find it to believe - our former greats knew where to find a beer. And, shock horror, Newk, Rocket,Lew and the boys might even have danced with the odd ''go-go dancer'' in their time.

Yet, while what Newcombe was up to before he stumbled into room 206 is accepted as an amusing - even beloved - part of our sporting heritage, the pictures of Ol' Newk and the current squad celebrating are clearly not.

Rather, those images have caused another of the tiresome ''add pictures and stir'' instant controversies that are too easily whipped up by self-appointed moral guardians and perpetuated by experts.

There was, of course, a major difference between what happened on the Cote d'Azur in the wee hours of Monday morning and what happened after dark in the era of wooden racquets and Dunlop Volleys. In the old days, the press photographers didn't bring their cameras and the reporters operated on a wink-wink,nudge-nudge, ''what happens at the party stays at the party'' basis. It was not necessarily the right way, but it was the way.

Which is not to criticise the outlets that published pictures of the cavorting Philippoussis. In the information age, any athlete would be naive, foolish or Ricky
Ponting to think his dance-floor gyrations would not appear on the front page the next day.

If there is any argument about whether the picture of Philippoussis celebrating with a topless dancer should have appeared, it is one of taste, not censorship.

What is irksome is the moral high ground adopted by those looking to make cheap currency out of what was a harmless night out. The disingenuous ''he should behave like a role model'' and ''they have a responsibility to their country'' nonsense that is all too easily generated.

In the real world, the fact that the once-aloof Philippoussis was celebrating with his teammates should be a good-news story, even if the methods were ever so slightly ill-advised. That might be something his agent - or, more likely, his mother - takes up with him, but it is hardly the cause for the sort of ''Shame, Scud, shame'' tsk tsk-ing that has followed.

Predictably, the people who condemn the current players are the same ones who glory in Australia's past greats. They yearn for the noble sportsmanship of the ''golden era'', yet conveniently ignore the fact that, in the days before strict diets and hectic schedules, Hoad and Fraser were far more likely to be found in the hotel lobby bar than Philippoussis, Rafter and today's idols.

The question was even posed whether the funding for tennis might be affected by the behaviour of the Davis Cup squad. Seriously. As if this funding comes with no g-strings attached.

Newcombe had a quick and effective rebuttal for the critics. Those who complained, he said, were ''knockers and wankers''.

He might like to attend the Xmas party of one of the media moral guardians, where the x often stands for x-rated. He could observe their behaviour, take the odd photo and add another word to his defence - hypocrites.