Italy defeated Australia in the 2023 Davis Cup final, and Australian Team Captain Lleyton Hewitt had some words to say about it afterward.
The former player has been a very vocal critic of this type of Davis Cup. He’s not the only one, of course, because many former and current players have spoken out against the format, which goes against what the competition has been historically.
As someone who experienced the old format, Hewitt laments the fact that Australia is playing far away from home when they could have played the competition back home in an amazing atmosphere.
Malaga did its best and had a decent atmosphere all things considered, which Hewitt recognized, but it’s still not the same.
It’s been a great week in terms of our performance, and we gave ourselves an opportunity. Yeah, Malaga has put on a great event in terms of what they can do with the format that they’ve got, you know. Their hands are tied. There’s no home-and-away and there’s no five sets, so it’s not ideal.
We are playing on a surface that, yeah, I’m really sick of playing on, to be honest. That’s not what Davis Cup is about. It’s playing on clay, grass, outdoor elements. You know, there’s a lot of different things. Yeah, it’s obviously pretty frustrating, I think, that we don’t Davis Cup anymore, and especially in the big matches, as well.
This version of the Davis Cup is hugely unpopular, but it’s likely here to stay. Time will ultimately tell whether some changes are implemented, but the competition hasn’t looked the same. It hasn’t garnered the same amount of interest either, even though the players care deeply about it.
You generally won’t find many tennis players agreeing on the same things, so when they do, it’s usually significant.
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