{"id":253744,"date":"2022-11-29T19:11:03","date_gmt":"2022-11-29T20:11:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=253744"},"modified":"2022-11-30T05:59:01","modified_gmt":"2022-11-30T05:59:01","slug":"davis-cup-disgrace-enrages-aussie-legend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=253744","title":{"rendered":"Davis Cup 'disgrace' enrages Aussie legend"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian tennis legend\ufeff Todd Woodbridge<\/a> has launched a withering spray at Davis Cup<\/a> organisers after the final was won by Canada, which wouldn't have reached the decider if it hadn't been gifted "a second-chance wildcard".<\/p>\n

Canada defeated Australia in the Davis Cup final<\/a> in the early hours of Monday morning (AEDT) when Felix Auger-Aliassime downed Alex de Minaur.<\/p>\n

But the Canadians would not have contested the decider if the International Tennis Federation hadn't given them a wildcard into the finals in March \u2014 a privilege afforded to them despite a 4-0 hammering at the hands of the Netherlands in the qualifying round.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/p>\n

A spot in the finals needed to be filled when Russia was cut due to its war on Ukraine, but Woodbridge believes a winner from the second-tier World Group \ufeffI should have received the right.<\/p>\n

Woodbridge, a member of Australia's triumphant 1999 and 2003 Davis Cup teams, unloaded on tournament bosses on 2GB's Wide World of Sports radio<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

"I'm going to sound like a sore loser, but I don't really care," Woodbridge said.<\/p>\n

"Canada and the ITF (International Tennis Federation) … Canada shouldn't have even been in the final\ufeff. They lost in April. They were given a second-chance wildcard to play in this event. You do not win the Davis Cup on a second chance; you have to try again next year. But they have a serious asterisk against their name, which is unfortunate.<\/p>\n

"I probably assume that the ITF would have liked Australia to win the competition.<\/p>\n

"If you're going to change rules mid-year, it doesn't hold the same values as it did once before."<\/p>\n

\"Canada<\/p>\n

The Australians qualified for a Davis Cup final for the first time since 2003.<\/p>\n

\ufeffAlex de Minaur, Thanasi Kokkinakis, Matt Ebden and Max Purcell represented Australia in the Davis Cup finals in Spain.<\/p>\n

Woodbridge slammed the ITF's decision when it was made public in March, calling it a "disgrace".\ufeff<\/p>\n

US Davis Cup captain Mardy Fish said in September that the Davis Cup "isn't an exhibition event where we make up rules as we go".<\/p>\n

"Davis Cup has been around over 100 years," Fish added.<\/p>\n

At the same time, 2003 US Open champion Andy Roddick said it would be "tough to consider them (Canada) legitimate\ufeff" if they went on to win.\ufeff\ufeff<\/p>\n

"To Lleyton (Hewitt) and\ufeff our boys: well done, you did it the right way, you fell just a little bit short," Woodbridge added.<\/p>\n

"But to the rest of them: I hope they all go back in a boardroom\ufeff and work out the rules properly for next year."<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Australian tennis legend\ufeff Todd Woodbridge has launched a withering spray at Davis Cup organisers after the final was won by Canada, which wouldn't have reached […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253744"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=253744"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253744\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":253746,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253744\/revisions\/253746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=253744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=253744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=253744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}