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 Davis Cup fever returns
Posted: Monday July 19, 1999 04:47 PM
BROOKLINE, Mass. -- Hard to believe it was just last fall that the Davis Cup seemed to be suffused with as much prestige in the U.S. as a watermelon-seed-spitting contest. In a semifinal tie against Italy played in dowdy Milwaukee Arena, a hastily-cobbled team of Todd Martin, Jan-Michael Gambill and Justin Gimelstob (who?) lost ignominiously in front a handful of funereal fans. America's top three player, Pete Sampras, Michael Chang and Andre Agassi, had other interests that weekend and certain doomsayers (O.K., this doomsayer) even called for the desperate measure of replacing Tom Gullikson as the U.S.'s captain with John McEnroe. "Let's just say that weekend wasn't a real high point for American tennis," says Martin. Faster than you can say centennial anniversary, the Davis Cup is back with a vengeance. In this, the 100th year of tennis' only team competition, Davis Cup fever, if not an epidemic, is suddenly catching. When the U.S. plays Australia this weekend at the Longwood Cricket Club -- site of the original tie between America and Great Britain in 1900 -- it will be before a standing-room-only crowd that gobbled up all the available tickets within an hour of their sale. The event will be simulcast on a Jumbotron in downtown Boston, televised live worldwide, and imbued with pomp and circumstance worthy of a Victorian jubilee. "I can't remember the last time a Davis Cup tie has generated this kind of excitement," says Gullikson. "This is what the competition is supposed to be all about." What gives? Why the cultural sea change? For one, the American team got here by staging a remarkable upset of Britain early this spring. Aging war-horses Jim Courier and Martin outlasted Britain's Greg Rusedski and Tim Henman -- both top-10 players at the time -- in a weekend of exhilarating tennis. Second, Sampras, the world's best player, has reversed his two-year stance and rejoined the team. Finally, Australia is a redoubtable opponent, led by GQ coverboy Pat Rafter, who is on the verge of supplanting Agassi as the biggest attraction in men's tennis. "Just like boxers say, 'Let's get it on,' we're ready to try and win three matches before the Americans do," says Rafter. "This has all the makings of a great weekend of tennis." Still, before the first ball has been struck, the tie has already been shrouded in the bizarre. Australia's fortunes have gone, well, down under in the past few weeks. Mark Philippoussis, their up-and-coming star, had to withdraw on account of a knee injury and Todd Woodbridge, who hasn't lost a Davis Cup doubles match in nearly six years, abruptly left the team, citing a crisis of confidence. Not exactly a good omen for a team looking to avenge a loss to Zimbabwe (!) last year. The U.S. team, however, has a curious subplot of its own. Wary of stepping on his teammates' toes, Sampras has only made himself available for doubles this weekend. Both Martin and Courier offered to surrender the stage to the best player on the planet, but Sampras demurred. "After what those guys did in England," he says, "I wouldn't feel comfortable jumping on the bandwagon and taking their spot." If the U.S. survives with Sampras declining to go solo, it ought to only heighten anticipation for the fall's semifinal tie. If the U.S. succumbs with its best player on the bench, well, it will only add to Cup's textured hundred-year history.
Come back Friday, Saturday and Sunday to read Sports Illustrated staff writer Jon Wertheim's reports from the U.S.-Australia Davis Cup tie in Massachusetts.
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