Hewitt's Davis Cup jinx strikes again

Lleyton Hewitt's Davis Cup final jinx struck again on Friday when he was beaten 4-6, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 by France's Nicolas Escude.

The Australian boasts a proud record in Davis Cup ties, winning 16 of his 20 singles matches before Friday, but three of those four losses had come in finals.

He lost both of his matches when Australia beat France 3-2 in the 1999 final then another in last year's defeat by Spain.

"It's hard, it's always pretty hard," said Hewitt, who twice led by a set against Escude only to go down in five.

"I lost some of my matches in the last finals and it doesn't get any easier."

With a grand slam title and world number one ranking under his belt, Hewitt was determined not to let history repeat itself in this week's final against France.

He won more points than Escude in their three-and-a-half hour battle but failed to win the ones that mattered, converting just three of his 18 break points while the Frenchman won four of eight.

"The biggest key would have been to take my opportunities when they came," Hewitt said.

GOOD RESULTS

"I had an awful lot, in just about every set, but I just couldn't take them."

Escude, who also beat Hewitt in five sets at Wimbledon this year, capitalised on Hewitt's decision to stick to the baseline by utilising his more effective serve-and-volley game.

But the Australian said he had no plans to change his game in the future.

"I've beaten him on hard court, never played him on clay and the only match we played on grass he won, basically the same score as today," Hewitt said.

"Maybe I've got to alter my game a little bit more to play better on grass but I've still had good results on grass so I won't be making any big changes."

Hewitt's game is better suited to hard court but the Australians decided to install a temporary grass court at Melbourne Park because it would suit the other team members, especially Patrick Rafter, twice a Wimbledon finalist.

"The surface choice was made with all players involved in the team coming into consideration," Australian coach Wally Masur said.

"Maybe that wasn't the ideal court for Lleyton to be playing Nicolas Escude (on) but we talked about it and for the betterment of the team we decided that was the surface to go with and we are still confident of winning."