Tennis: BBC not amused by Aussie's pregnancy slang

Former Australian tennis star Pat Cash has been at it again.

Cash, a former Wimbledon singles champion, is commentating for the BBC at the current championships in London.

During Australian Lleyton Hewitt's second round match against Czech Jan Hernych, Cash happened to notice Hewitt's fiancee, actress Bec Cartwright, in the stand.

Believing his microphone was off, he remarked: "I bet she's up the duff."

It was confusing for many thousands of American viewers not familiar with this Australian expression for pregnancy. But the BBC understood it and responded.

"We would like to apologise on behalf of Pat Cash because we do feel that the term was inappropriate," a BBC spokeswoman said. "It is not a term we would have chosen."

Across the equator, those quite familiar with the expression were bemused for a different reason. The Home and Away television soap star's announcement of her pregnancy was big news in Australia a month ago and it was somewhat surprising that Cash, a mate of Hewitt's, was unaware of it, even if he does live in England.

The gaffe is not a one-off for the 1987 champion.

He coached Australian player Mark Philippoussis for a while, but they fell out badly.

Philippoussis was for a time friendly with Russian pin-up girl and lousy tennis player Anna Kournikova, but was also coy about the extent of that friendship.

Cash blew it for him.

In a British newspaper column, he said Philippoussis spent the night before a match at the Australian Open in bed with Kournikova and celebrated reaching the semifinals of the 1998 United States Open by going to a strip club.

"One of the trickiest problems I encountered was how do you tell a fit, eligible young man that it's probably not a good idea to spend the night with Anna Kournikova before a big match," Cash wrote.

During the Australian Open two years ago, Cash again infuriated Philippoussis by suggesting that his on-court performance had suffered from staying up late and "getting busy" with Australian singer Delta Goodrem.

Hewitt wasn't concerned over Cash's latest blue.

"Pat always comes out with some loose comments now and then," he said.

How Cartwright felt was not known.

- NZPA