Team Australia captain Lleyton Hewitt pulled no punches when describing how difficult the scheduling of the Davis Cup was for his players.
An Australian team without injured talisman Alex de Minaur managed to progress to the quarter-finals of the Davis Cup.
A near-perfect week of tennis was somewhat disrupted by defeat to Spain in the final doubles match, despite the fact both teams had already secured qualification.
US Open doubles champion Max Purcell and his partner Matthew Ebden lost to a makeshift Spanish team in what was effectively a dead-rubber.
Purcell, who was revealed to have been struggling with injury since New York, was the subject of Lleyton Hewitt’s anger, as he lamented the events scheduling.
Lleyton Hewitt defends his injured team as he unloads on ‘ridiculous’ Davis Cup schedule
The result was unimportant as both teams had already secured their spot in thee eight-team finals in Malaga in November.
With Purcell physically struggling, Hewitt made sure to praise his team for racing from the US Open to Valencia to compete for their country within just two days.
“We have had a few guys this week pretty banged up. It would have been very easy for a few of my boys to not turn up this week, but they have come and put on the green and gold and have done absolutely everything I have asked of them, so I am super proud,” Hewitt told The Guardian.
“To try and ask players to play the second day after a grand slam finishes … it’s not easy. In the old (weekend) format, I used to have to do it, but you’d at least have until Friday before you had to play. Now to play on Tuesday, it’s ridiculous,” Hewitt said.
With both teams playing purely for pride, Hewitt said: “That’s the stupid part of this format, isn’t it? You know, I can keep saying it. But the format is what it is, and we’ll do what we need to do to get through and give ourselves a chance of hopefully holding up the trophy.”
Which other countries are through to the Davis Cup eight-team finals?
An injury-hit Jack Draper couldn’t save Great Britain as they fumbled their two singles matches over both Argentina and Canada, the latter two take their spot in Malaga in November.
Echoing Hewitt’s grievances, Draper revealed his anger at ATP scheduling, with recovery time from the US Open clearly not taking player welfare into account.
Australia and Argentina are set to play either reigning champions Italy or the 32-time winners USA, who both topped their group.
The 2022 Davis Cup champions Canada won all their matches in Group D and will play either Germany or the Netherlands.
The Dutch outfit left it pretty late to progress but could also face a Carlos Alcaraz led Spain.
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