Lleyton Hewitt proud of Australia’s ‘injury spree’ in Davis Cup loss to Spain

Coach Lleyton Hewitt said he was proud of Australia’s “bruised” but brave performance to battle through a “horrible” schedule and reach final week of the Davis Cup. Captain Hewitt, who has been an open critic of the revamped tournament for years, criticized the format again on Sunday in Valencia after his team ended an otherwise successful qualifying campaign with a 2-1 loss to hosts Spain.

The result was largely irrelevant with both teams already having booked dates for the eight-team final in Malaga in November, but Hewitt immediately praised his out-of-form players who flew 6,000km away from the US Open to play for their country.

When it was revealed that U.S. Open men’s doubles champion Max Purcell had to play through an injury in Valencia, coach Hewitt said, “We had a couple of players pretty injured this week. Only the guys in the locker room know that. It would have been tough if some of our players hadn’t shown up this week, but they showed up, they put on the green and gold and they did everything I asked of them. I’m very proud of them.”

Purcell played in the doubles opening match against France on Tuesday, less than three days after his win at Flushing Meadows, but struggled in Sunday’s final against Matt Ebden as the former Wimbledon champion suffered a shock defeat.

“It’s not easy to ask players to play on the second day after a Grand Slam is over,” Hewitt said. [weekend only] “Because the format has changed, before we had to do that, but we had time to play at least until Friday. Now it would be ridiculous to play on Tuesday.”

Hewitt also didn’t see the point in a four-team, week-long group stage that would end with a virtually meaningless match between the two teams who had already qualified.

“That’s the silly part about the format, you know? I could keep saying it,” Hewitt shrugged, “but a format is a format and we’ll do what we need to do to get through and hopefully have a chance to lift the trophy.”

A sellout crowd at Pabellon Fuente de San Luis was delighted with the home win, but many fans were no doubt disappointed to see star player Carlos Alcaraz rested, and Spain captain David Ferrer also chose not to field singles ace Roberto Bautista Agut for what was essentially a reserve team.

Ebden and Purcell lost 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 to the impromptu pairing of world number one Marcel Granollers and occasional doubles player Pedro Martinez. The Spanish crowd was delighted, but Ebden was a little cynical, admitting: “The format is a bit strange. We played Spain in a qualifier two days ago and then it’s a dead heat.”

“Honestly, it feels different than usual. Of course, we tried to win. I don’t mean to make excuses for losing, but it feels strange.”

And his partner was far from at his best. “Max’s been hurt obviously all week,” Ebden said. “So he won the U.S. Open and then came here and helped the team qualify for Malaga, which was the only goal.”

The goal was achieved despite the absence of Australia’s number one Alex de Minaur – who Hewitt is hopeful the player will be able to return in Malaga after recently struggling with a hip injury – but Australia’s near-perfect week fell apart on the final day.

First, world number 29 Jordan Thompson, Purcell’s partner in the Flushing Meadows victory, lost 6-2, 2-6, 6-7 (3-7) to veteran reserve player Carreno Busta, world number 207, after the Sydney native served for the win in the third set.

“It was incredibly frustrating, especially playing for Australia. I feel like it was an absolute missed opportunity,” Thompson said.At least substitute No. 1 Alexei Popyrin beat Martinez 6-4, 6-4 to tie the score, after which Martinez became the unlikely doubles hero.