Melbourne, Nov 23: Alex Corretja defended the Spanish team's decision to arrive relatively late to practice on grass at Kooyong. The match will be played on grass at Rod Laver Arena.
Hewitt has been hitting on grass for the past three weeks, although he lacks match practice due to his limited tournament schedule since September.
Corretja said the players were weary after a long year and considered their initial leadup on grass in Houston, Texas and in Barcelona over the past week as sufficient.
"The grass season is like time off for us," he said. "I don't see any problem for us ... But of course we'd rather play on clay."
Corretja and 22-year-old left handed Feliciano Lopez were the first to arrive in Melbourne. Carlos Moya arrived Friday and world no.2 Juan Carlos Ferrero was expected Saturday.



Corretja said Lopez remained a chance to play singles despite the higher rankings of Ferrero and Moya, but he is expected to be used as a doubles weapon with his swinging left hand serve and volleying ability.



"Definitely he (Lopez) has a good chance to play (singles)," Corretja said. "I mean he's ready, he's been practicing on a different grass court and he's been playing pretty well at Wimbledon so far.



"We will see how his game develops here and what the captain decides."



He described the Australians as a strong team.


Bureau Report