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© Getty Images Sport – Angel Martinez
Australian Davis Cup team captain Lleyton Hewitt has made it perfectly clear once again that he wants the Davis Cup “to be how it was.” Since the changes to the Davis Cup format were introduced a couple of years ago, Hewitt has been one of the harshest critics of the new format.
Hewitt, who won two Davis Cup titles with Australia as a player, thinks the soul of the Davis Cup has been taken away and that it just doesn’t feel the same without home-and-away ties. At the start of the Davis Cup Final 8 in Malaga, Hewitt once again explained why he believes the Davis Cup needs to return to its old format.
“The No 1 thing is home-and-away ties. I have watched plenty of vision the last few years, even back in the day when I was playing. Coming back here to Spain and remembering 2000. Rafa Nadal was carrying the flag onto the court in front of over 20,000 people, all booing and screaming against me, and it was still an unbelievable atmosphere.
That’s what the Davis Cup was about. Whether we played home semis and finals in Rod Laver Arena or away in France, in Nice, or Barcelona, it was an unbelievable experience and some of my best memories. Some of my hardest memories, as well, but some of my very best,” Hewitt said, via Ubitennis.
Hewitt also criticized the Davis Cup format in September
Prior to the start of the Davis Cup Finals group stage in September, Hewitt accused the competition’s organizers of “really screwing up” the Davis Cup. “But do I agree this format is good? No, not for a minute.
We’ve gotta get rid of people at the top … we’ve seen what’s happened, it was meant to be a 25-year thing and it’s turned into a four-year disaster. So until changes are made, we’re gonna sit back and go through exactly the same stuff every year.
I can say until the cows come home, but they’ve really screwed it up,” Hewitt said in September. On Wednesday, Australia faces the Czech Republic in the quarterfinal in Malaga.
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