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French connection Pioline, Santoro down Australians for Davis Cup leadPosted: Saturday December 01, 2001 1:20 AMUpdated: Saturday December 01, 2001 3:30 PM
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) -- In French, it's called "un retour de baton," loosely translated as a stick coming back to hit someone in the face. In English, it would be more commonly known as a backfire, and it happened to gambling Australian captain John Fitzgerald on Saturday, allowing France to take a 2-1 lead in the Davis Cup tennis final. Fitzgerald decided Saturday morning to replace veteran doubles player Todd Woodbridge, winner of 12 Grand Slam doubles titles and 70 in his career, and his scheduled partner, grass-court specialist Wayne Arthurs, with Australia's top two singles players. So world top-ranked Lleyton Hewitt, who lost his opening singles match in five sets Friday, and Pat Rafter, who won in singles but is fighting tendinitis in his right arm, were substituted in an attempt to give Australia the lead going into Sunday's reverse singles. The move appeared to work in the first game, when a pumped-up Rafter and Hewitt broke Cedric Pioline's serve to take the early lead over him and partner Fabrice Santoro. But Pioline and Santoro, playing the best doubles match of his career, came back to beat the Australians 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (5), 6-1 before more than 15,000 spectators at Rod Laver Arena. Fitzgerald defended his move, although admitting "it breaks your heart because they are such a high-quality team." "But we had two of the best players in the world here, and I have no regrets," said Fitzgerald. "It's a fine line between being a genius and an idiot. But I stand by it." On Sunday, Hewitt, who has played nine sets in the past two days, will play the opening match against Sebastien Grosjean. Nicolas Escude, who beat Hewitt on Friday, is scheduled to play Rafter, although under Davis Cup rules substitutions can be made on either team. Friday started with an upset victory by Escude -- who had won just one match since September's U.S. Open -- over Hewitt, 4-6, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. Rafter beat Grosjean 6-3, 7-6 (6), 7-5. France is trying to win its ninth Davis Cup. The odds don't favor Australia coming back to win the final, although they have history on their side. The country that has won the doubles match in a Davis Cup final has won the title in every year since 1972 with one exception -- Australia lost the doubles in 1977 but beat Italy. In 1999, the French were upset by Australia on their favored surface -- clay -- at Nice. Australia installed a portable grass court in this year's final to give Australia a perceived edge. Fitzgerald said it was difficult to compare the two Australian doubles teams. "It's six of one, half-dozen of the other," he said. "You just have to take everything into account - the team you are playing, the scoreline, what happened on the first day, and put them into a pot and try to come up with the best combination on the day." At first, the pot appeared to have been stirred well. Rafter and Hewitt had the early service break, then did the same in the fifth to easily win the first set. In the third set, the Australians frittered away two set points at 5-4 before before it went to a tiebreaker. Australia led 5-4 in the tiebreaker before the French stormed back with three straight points. Rafter and Hewitt appeared demoralized in the fourth set as the French romped to victory. "This is the best I've ever seen them play together," French captain Guy Forget said of his players' performance, singling out Santoro for special mention. "I think the key was our win in the tiebreaker." "But we're only up 2-1 and we've still got two matches to play. Davis Cup is a crazy event and anything can happen." It is the third win in four Davis Cup matches for Pioline and Santoro this year. They won in the first round against Belgium, lost in the quarterfinal against Switzerland but won in straight sets in the semifinal against the Netherlands in September. Hewitt and Rafter won together in Australia's quarterfinal
victory over Brazil in April. Hewitt and Rafter have now played 16
times together with a 12-4 record, including 8-3 this year.
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