7th November, 1999

FRENCH SNUB FIRES SQUAD

THE French Tennis Federation's failure to award Mark Philippoussis a doubles wildcard for this week's Paris Open is a classic example of the obstacles Australian players face abroad.

Mark has missed much of this year because of knee surgery, and the French are well aware of his need to play as many matches as possible before Australia and France meet in the Davis Cup final on December 3-5.

For the French to give Gustavo Kuerten and Nicolas Lapentti the wildcard in preference to Philippoussis and Pete Sampras is an ordinary decision, especially when you compare it to the way overseas players are treated by Tennis Australia.

It is tough for me to sit back and watch this kind of thing happening when I know how Tennis Australia goes out of its way to make overseas players comfortable when they're in this country.

I'm not asking for Tennis Australia to start treating the visiting players as second-class citizens, but when you see situations such as that confronting Philippoussis, you tend to wonder what is behind it all.

If nothing else it shows how seriously the French want to win the Davis Cup, but from our point of view, all this incident will serve to do is make us even more determiend to win in Nice.

"Flip" has certainly found form at the right time and I'm sure the French players were a little unseasy this week watching him beat Nicolas Escude, Richard Krajicek and Tim Henman. The same goes for Lleyton Hewitt.

His close loss to Cedric Pioline would also have given French captain Guy Forget plenty to think about.

RICHARD Fromberg's return to the Australian Davis Cup squad is a classic example of perseverance and dedication to a cause.

Richard has battled injury over the past three or four years, but he loves nothing more than playing Davis Cup for Australia.

He has a fantastic record in Davis Cup and especially on indoor clay, which this final will be decided on. There has been a couple of injury worries in the squad, but this is our best opportunity to win the Cup since our last succss in 1986.

Todd Woodbridge's selection is recognition of the hard work he has put in since pulling out of the quarter-final agains the US in Boston.

He has a first-class Davis Cup record, having lost only two doubles matches in eight years. With Mark Woodforde, Todd has often ensured that Australia has survived into the third day.

The Woodies remain one of the best combinations in the world, and doubles is the one area in which we have failed to take full advaantage during the past two ties; Mark and Sandon Stolle twice losing in the fifth set.

Flip and Lleyton lead the race for the singles spots, ahead of Richard. The Woodies look like playing doubles.

MY shoulder continues to progress well with more treatment.

At this stage, I'm still confident of playing the Australian Open and two lead-up events - the AAPT Championships and the Colonial Classic

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