Australia will host Bosnia and Herzegovina in Davis Cup Qualifiers in Adelaide between February 1-2 and the captain of the host team Lleyton Hewitt has invited Alex de Minaur, John Millman, Jordan Thompson, John Peers and Alexei Popyrin who will try to carry Australia over the top and secure the placer at Davis Cup finals in November.
Australian Tennis Federation, players and Lleyton Hewitt himself were among the most prominent antagonists of the new Davis Cup format that will be implemented this week and Hewitt had some harsh words for Kosmos president and founder Gerard Pique, saying he knows nothing about tennis.
Lleyton cant accept the fact that some countries will not have a chance to play at home for years and also that we now have the best-of-three format instead of the best-of-five that had been the standard in Davis Cup ever since the foundation in 1900.
On the other hand, he still thinks Davis Cup is essential for the Australian players, giving them a chance to work together before spreading across the world, without the opportunity to reach Australia again before next December.
Also, he expects certain standards and principles from his players, not only in Davis Cup but throughout the season, something that has not always been the case from some of the guys who will not play against Bosnia in Adelaide.
The Davis Cup is a vehicle to be able to really push the culture that we want moving forward and set the standards not just for myself but what our team expects, . And thats not just Davis Cup weeks.
We expect these guys to go out and represent Australia every single week of the year exceptionally well and push each other to get better. To go out there and want to compete and want to lay it on the line week after week, its not an easy thing to do.
Tennis is a very individual sport and Australia is one of the toughest countries to come from to be a tennis professional because youre not fortunate to come back home during the season, youre out on the road for a lot of the weeks.
So for these guys to get together and help each other get better, I think thats something that Tony Roche and I really want to see moving forward. It was a breakthrough summer for a log of these guys and its because theyre pushing each other, they want each other to get better day in, day out.
0 thoughts on “Lleyton Hewitt: 'We expect our guys to represent Australia every week'”