Davis Cup final

[Donny]

2000 - Spain
2001 - France
2002 - Russia

[Donny]

1950 Australia beat U.S. 4-1
1951 Australia beat U.S. 3-2
1952 Australia beat U.S. 4-1
1953 Australia beat U.S. 3-2
1954 U.S. beat Australia 3-2
1955 Australia beat U.S. 5-0
1956 Australia beat U.S. 5-0
1957 Australia beat U.S. 3-2
1958 U.S. beat Australia 3-2
1959 Australia beat U.S. 3-2
1960 Australia beat Italy 4-1
1961 Australia beat Italy 5-0
1962 Australia beat Mexico 5-0
1963 U.S. beat Australia 3-2
1964 Australia beat U.S. 3-2
1965 Australia beat Spain 4-1
1966 Australia beat India 4-1
1967 Australia beat Spain 4-1
1968 U.S. beat Australia 4-1
1969 U.S. beat Romania 5-0
1970 U.S. beat Germany 5-0
1971 U.S. beat Romania 3-2
1972 U.S. beat Romania 3-2
1973 Australia beat U.S. 5-0
1974 South Africa beat India (walkover)
1975 Sweden beat Czechoslovakia 3-2
1976 Italy beat Chile 4-1
1977 Australia beat Italy 3-1
1978 U.S. beat Britain 4-1
1979 U.S. beat Italy 5-0
1980 Czechoslovakia beat Italy 4-1
1981 U.S. beat Argentina 3-1
1982 U.S. beat France 4-1
1983 Australia beat Sweden 3-2
1984 Sweden beat U.S. 4-1
1985 Sweden beat Germany 3-2
1986 Australia beat Sweden 3-2
1987 Sweden beat India 5-0
1988 Germany beat Sweden 4-1
1989 Germany beat Sweden 3-2
1990 U.S. beat Australia 3-2
1991 France beat U.S. 3-1
1992 U.S. beat Switzerland 3-1
1993 Germany beat Australia 4-1
1994 Sweden beat Russia 4-1
1995 U.S. beat Russia 3-2
1996 France beat Sweden 3-2
1997 Sweden beat U.S. 5-0
1998 Sweden beat Italy 4-1
1999 Australia beat France 3-2
2000 Spain beat Australia 3-1
2001 France beat Australia 3-2
2002 Russia beat France 3-2
2003 Australia beat Spain 3-

[HAL]

Can you tell me any gossip?

[Newelly]

So whats the overal win count for all Countries Donny?

Australia seem to have won twice as many as any other country.

[Newelly]

SA over India being a walkover meant? Forfeit in one or several of the games or is their no official record from that year?

[Donny]

Australia has won 28, Doc. I'll get back to you on the full count.

I'm not sure about the walkover but I suspect it's something to do with apartheid. Maybe India boycotted the final.

[Joel]

GO AUSSIES!!

Woooohooooo. BTW, I'm not sure if anyone has posted this, but I think only the US have more Davis Cup wins than Aust., with 31.

[commonwombat]

Newelly,

The walkover came about because India refused to play the tie, even on neutral turf.

[Donny]

Proud dad spurs son to victory
By Shaun Phillips - Fox Sports
December 1, 2003

NICK PHILIPPOUSSIS helped inspire his son to an unforgettable triumph by telling the 193cm giant not to be a wimp.

Philippoussis Sr rushed from his front-row seat to the change rooms when Mark was forced to seek treatment for the injury that caused great pain to shoot through his pectoral muscle.

"I said, 'Mark, don't be a wimp - go out there and win and give it everything you've got'," said the father, who doubles as coach, as he ran to the rooms again - this time to congratulate his boy.

"Go out there and win, I said, and he looked at me and said he would give it everything. I knew he would.

"I told him to leave everything out on the court, and as you can see, that is what he did."

Greek-born Mr Philippoussis said he was "over the moon, overjoyed".

"He's won the Davis Cup once before, but this was a very good one," he said.

"I can't describe how proud I feel."

Philippoussis's parents are estranged. The Italian-born Rosanna Philippoussis watched the match from her Williamstown home.

"She gets too nervous to come here, so she was watching on TV," said Philippoussis's sister, Maria. She admitted watching her brother's heroics through tears.

"When he won the first game of the last set, and then kept winning, it was unbelievable," said Maria, a teacher.

"I actually started crying, it was so emotional."

Comedian Nick Giannopoulos was among the Scud's entourage.

He declared the tennis star a close mate and "the greatest [snip] boy this country has ever produced".

"I'm so proud because it's Mark's home town and I'm here with his beautiful sister and his father and his family," he said.

"It's a moment I'll never forget."

Giannopoulos said the win was extra satisfying given past questions raised about Philippoussis's dedication to the national cause.

"What he's gone through with all the Davis Cup controversy in the past, today is the vindication that Mark is a very patriotic and proud Australian," he said.

"He went to another level in that fifth set today, and that's what playing for your country does."

[Donny]

Philippoussis pulls off miracle
By Leo Schlink - Fox Sports
December 1, 2003

IN THE end, Juan Carlos Ferrero succumbed to the impossible. Mark Philippoussis simply embraced it.

In little more than an hour, French Open champion Ferrero had managed to wipe out a two-sets-to-love deficit by winning 97 points to ailing Philippoussis's meagre 34.

The momentum was with Ferrero as the players took a deserved 10-minute break at the end of the fourth set and Philippoussis was treated by chiropractor Andreas Bisaz for a torn chest muscle.

Ferrero could scent victory, until Philippoussis conjured the 7-5 6-3 1-6 2-6 6-0 victory that will forever define his fractured career.

"I was thinking that I have to steal the set in the same way that I did in the third and the fourth set," world No. 3 Ferrero said.

"I tried to break early his serves and tried to keep going all the time, fighting and fighting until I win the match. But finally, it was impossible."

Ferrero may well have cause for bewilderment.

Philippoussis's serve, so explosive in the first two sets, became a liability in the third and fourth brackets.

He lost 52 points on his famed right arm, winning only 24 as his first service percentage plummeted to 39.

And the pattern seemed set to continue into the decider when grimacing Philippoussis slumped to 30-30 after a pair of double faults in the first game.

Cue the heroics that now have Philippoussis shining among the pantheon of Australian Davis Cup stars.

Under extreme pressure, and with Ferrero anticipating more of the pedestrian deliveries that had allowed him to win 12 of the previous 15 games, Philippoussis went ballistic.

A 191 km/h ace was followed by a 186 km/h bomb. The demolition had started and it ran unchecked for 30 glorious minutes.

Philippoussis chipped and charged with supreme courage to break Ferrero's serve in the second game, a feat he had not achieved since the eighth game of the second set.

He then crushed Ferrero's spirit in the third game by following up the break with more powerhouse serving.

When Philippoussis held serve for 5-0 after again breaking fading Ferrero's serve, Lleyton Hewitt finally emerged from the changeroom knowing one of the Davis Cup's most improbable match victories was only points from completion.

Like Philippoussis, Ferrero was in pain.

"The arm was playing up. The serve wasn't as good. There was a lot of pressure on me from the start," said Ferrero, who two weeks ago was ranked No. 1 in the world.

"The third and fourth set, I felt I was going well.

"I could have taken the next set, but I guess luck was not on my side today and the other party played better.

"He played well in spite of not being in the best physical shape.

"He tried to break my serve (in the fifth set) and he did that, and from that point on, everything went in his favour."

Ferrero's disappointment was not eased by the fact he had taken Philippoussis and Hewitt to five sets on grass in three days, yet lost both matches.

And, as the architect of Spain's win on clay in Barcelona three years ago, Ferrero took no solace in the fact he won six more points than Philippoussis yesterday - 140-134 - but ended on the wrong side of a marvellous contest.

From the moment Philippoussis walked on court desperate to atone for his flat loss to Carlos Moya on Friday, there was a sense the Williamstown right-hander was fated to succeed.

His footwork, attitude and timing was superior as he won 13 of the first 21 games.

But, after losing his serve in the second game of the third set (two aces, four double faults and seven break points), Philippoussis lost touch with Ferrero.

Only a supreme optimist would have believed Philippoussis had a skerrick of hope as play began in the deciding set.

Yet Philippoussis claimed 25 of the 38 points and richly deserved the acclaim.

"I don't know what happened. In the fifth (set) it was just weird," Philippoussis said.

"I was just relieved (on winning). When I smashed it, it was like, 'Oh my God'.

"It was more thinking I don't have to play another point.

"It wasn't emotional like this in Nice (when he clinched the 1999 Davis Cup final)."

Philippoussis revealed the key to the monumental turnaround was a locker room respite ordered by the team bench.

"It was good just for a couple of minutes to sit back and go to the locker room, just to have a breather," Philippoussis said.

"Just to get away from centre court for a minute.

"After the third and fourth set, the score was so quick and it was all happening so quickly and it was just on a roll.

"I wanted to change things up and Andreas started rubbing my pec and it helped a little."

And, against overwhelming odds, Philippoussis produced a remarkable revival bordering on miraculous.

[Newelly]

From that list it seems that the US has only won 14, unless of course the Davis Cup started before 1950??

[Donny]

Here 'tis, Doc.

USA - 31
Australia - 28
Britain, France - 9
Sweden - 7
Germany - 3
Chekoslovokia, Russia, Sth. Africa, Spain and Italy - 1

[HAL]

Do you have any friends?

[Newelly]

Are you my friend HAL or am I a friendless office loner about to put that shotgun, diesel and fertiliser to some use?

[HAL]

Sure. YOu seem nice enough.