Monday Milestone: Davis Love

“I’d take this one over Wimbledon any time”
– Mark Phillipoussis after winning the Davis Cup for Australia

This Week in History:
2003, November 30
Australia wins the Davis Cup in Melbourne for the first time on home soil in 17 years.

To say that Australian men’s tennis is undergoing a ‘transition period’ is something of an understatement. Of the current landscape, Lleyton Hewitt still plays, but despite his famous determination, even he’d agree his best days are behind him. Family and love have diluted his killer instinct. Nineteen year old Bernard Tomic, in the world top fifty, remains the shining hope. His career hangs on work ethic and more importantly attitude from here. A few other possibilities exist, but the horizon looks ever distant.

Certainly a forlorn outlook, considering the long, storied history of tennis in Australia that generated names like Rosewall, Laver, Emerson and Newcombe. So this week on the Milestone, it might be heartening to reflect on grander times.

In 2003 the halcyon days were dissipating. Father Time was closing the window. Key pieces of the puzzle from the triumph in Nice four years earlier were now involved in commentary and Bonds ads. Moreover, they had been only replaced by Wayne Arthurs. Lleyton Hewitt had just relinquished the top world ranking. Mark Phillipoussis remained a greater enigma than ever.

So hosting the final in Melbourne Park for the first time since Pat Cash had come from two sets down at Kooyong in 1986, was anything but a certainty. Indeed, it had been epic to simply qualify. Two months earlier, Hewitt had also found himself down two sets to Roger Federer in Melbourne, and heading to a tie break in the third. Winning not just the tie break, but the fourth and finally the fifth was one of the all time great escapes in Davis Cup history.

Now in the final in Melbourne, again he was in familiar territory, down two sets to one and heading to another tie break this time with Juan Carlos Ferrero. But then another remarkable performance would saw him go on to win in five sets again, in an incredible display of courage.  

By the reverse singles on the Sunday, victory in either match would bring the Cup back to Australia. Mark ‘the Scud’ Phillipoussis had been the hero in France four years earlier, and took an early two set lead; an Australian victory seemed imminent. But this was a Davis Cup final. And this was Mark Phillipoussis. Ferrero fought and an hour later it was suddenly two sets all.

Steeling himself for the final set, the Scud threw himself around the court in a performance that remains legendary in Australian tennis. Dominating the final games, he returned as a hero, winning Australia another Davis Cup, just before that crucial window closed…

Today it is a transition period, and  difficult to determine how long it will be before Australia can celebrate another Davis Cup win. Or whether, with the changing tennis landscape they ever will win another one? With such a grand history, it seems a matter of time. But right now it feels like there could be a long wait ahead.
  

The Milestone Five – Favourite Davis Cup moments:

 5. 1914 – Australian Norman Brookes defeats American Norris Williams 6-1, 6-2, 8-10, 3-6 to win Australia’s first stand alone Davis Cup (previous victories had included New Zealand).

 4. 1983 – Eighteen year old Pat Cash, as the youngest player in Australian Davis Cup history defeats Swede Joakim Nystrom 6-4, 6-1, 6-1 to clinch the Davis Cup.

 3. 1999 – Mark Phillipoussis throws up his arms in triumph, defeating Frenchman Cedric Pioline on the unfavoured clay in the Davis Cup final in Nice, 6-3, 5-7, 6-1, 6-2.

 2. 1986 – Pat Cash recovers in the Davis Cup final to defeat Swede Mikhail Pernfors 2-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-3.

 1. 2003 – Lleyton Hewitt rallies from two sets to love down to defeat Swiss Roger Federer in the Davis Cup semi final 5-7, 2-6, 7-6, 7-5, 6-1.

 

With thanks to Lintao Zhang/Getty Images Asia Pac for the photo