No-show Hewitt could prove costly - Sports News - Fanatics - the world's biggest events

No-show Hewitt could prove costly

By Darren Walton 05/02/2003 07:35:54 PM Comments (0)

Tennis Australia is facing a fine from the International Tennis Federation over Lleyton Hewitt's no-show at a pre-Davis Cup tie press conference in Sydney.

Under new Davis Cup guidelines introduced this year, each team must hold a pre-draw press conference in the week of its tie.

Any team that fails to comply can be subject to a fine up to $US10,000 ($A16,945).

That's the worst-case scenario and it is believed any punishment eked out to TA will be of a minor scale due to some grey areas in the ruling.

World No.1 Hewitt was the only Australian player who failed to front for Tuesday's presser, with teammates Mark Philippoussis, Wayne Arthurs and Todd Woodbridge and captain John Fitzgerald all in attendance.

The British team was to appear at its compulsory pre-draw press conference at 2030 (AEDT) and it was not sure if it, too, had broken protocol by delaying its appearance by two hours.

While conceding the Australians may have erred, TA spokesman John Lindsay absolved Hewitt of any wrongdoing.

"The first thing to point out was that Lleyton basically had the offer from the team captain that he didn't need to attend yesterday," Lindsay said.

"Fitzy said `you don't need to come along tomorrow, I know the pressures you are under etc etc', so he was excused from attending.

"That's the first point.

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