Has the U.S. found its Davis Cup team?

By Marc Lancaster, CNNSI.com

	• Storylines • The Number • Aces/Double Faults • Drop Shots • They Said It • Looking Ahead

Rarely does a Davis Cup team remain exactly the same throughout an entire calendar year's play -- especially a United States team.

That probably will hold true this year too, but one thing was certain as the Americans wrapped up their opening-round rout of Slovakia on Sunday: Patrick McEnroe won't have to do much tweaking to this roster if he doesn't want to.

Yes, the Americans were facing a watered-down squad from perhaps the weakest nation in the World Group. Yes, Pete Sampras and Andy Roddick struggled a bit against players with world rankings in the mid-200s in Friday's singles matches. But still, the U.S. comes out of this weekend's tie feeling much better about the immediate future than it did last year, when it fell to Switzerland.

This was the kind of squad McEnroe wanted to put out there -- a team leaning more toward youth than experience, but with a couple of veterans thrown in to provide levity and guidance when necessary. Can he keep it together? Well, Sampras insists he'll play the entire year, and we know Roddick will be around as long as he's healthy, giving the U.S. as good a one-two singles punch as anyone.

Doubles has been the weak point for the last decade, but going with James Blake and Mardy Fish worked quite nicely. They certainly couldn't have fared any worse than recent U.S. duos, which had lost five doubles points in a row, and in fact they looked pretty comfortable together. McEnroe seems reluctant to go with veteran doubles specialists, so teams of young up-and-comers like those two might be the formula from now on.

The road will get tougher for the U.S. with Spain paying a visit in April, but this team seems ready for the challenge.

Tough weekend for the Union Jack

As solid as the U.S. team looked, the squads from two other nations that host Grand Slams didn't fare so well. It was no surprise at all to see 2001 finalist Australia get pummeled 5-0 by Argentina in Buenos Aires with a patchwork lineup, but just looking at that score in black and white is somewhat stunning, considering the Aussies' proud history in the event. Meanwhile, Great Britain's duo of Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski couldn't hold off Sweden's barrage, falling 3-2 in Birmingham when the Swedes won both singles matches on Sunday. Don't expect any changes for the Brits, though -- Griping Greg and Tiger Tim are about all they've got. Both sides will have plenty of time to contemplate their miseries, too. They won't play again until September, when they'll try to retain their World Group slots in relegation matches.

What's it gonna be?

Sunday passed with a bit of irony for Venus Williams, who was handed the Open Gaz de France title after Jelena Dokic decided two hours before the final that she couldn’t play because of a thigh injury. Usually, it's a Williams on the other side of those anticlimactic finals. Venus will take the win, though, and she'll play again this week in Antwerp, where she's taking injured sister Serena's place in the draw. That's an extra tournament on Venus' schedule, a welcome addition for both tennis fans and Williams' world ranking. But will picking up more events become a trend? It doesn't sound like it. In fact, Williams said in Paris that she might "take the fall off and go to school" rather than play after the U.S. Open. Williams has studied fashion design at the Florida Art Institute.

United States record in first-round Davis Cup ties since the current format was instituted in 1972.

ACE Thomas Johansson -- It just keeps getting better for the Australian Open champ, who fought off a groin injury that had bothered him all week to defeat Rusedski in the deciding singles match Sunday.

DOUBLE FAULT Andrew Ilie -- The Aussie is fun to watch when he's playing well, but man, winning only six games in five sets of tennis over the weekend? That's awful.

ACE Marat Safin -- For the third time in his career, he won the deciding singles match to send Russia into the next round of Davis Cup play.

DOUBLE FAULT Tommy Haas, again -- Yes, he got a double last week, but he earns another one for sitting at home in Florida while Germany fell 4-1 to Croatia.

ACE Madrid -- Finally, Spain gets its very own Masters Series event, taking the fall tournament away from Stuttgart, which had poor attendance in recent years.

Word is, Andre Agassi will soon hook up with Lleyton Hewitt's former coach, Darren Cahill. Agassi parted ways with Brad Gilbert a couple weeks ago, and a spokesman for Agassi said there is "a strong likelihood" Cahill will be joining the team in the near future.

I suppose we should be happy it wasn't something like Qualcomm (or Enron), but the new title sponsor of the former Ericsson/Lipton in Key Biscayne leaves something to be desired. The Nasdaq Open would have been tolerable, but somehow the Nasdaq-100 Open, the new name of the so-called fifth Grand Slam, is a bit obnoxious.

Organizers of the summer ATP events in Indianapolis and Washington have sued the ATP after finding out they were moved further away from the U.S. Open on the 2003 schedule -- from mid-August to late July. The suit accuses the ATP of manipulating schedules to benefit certain tournaments.

Talk about depth -- France left Nicolas Escude, the hero of its Cup-winning tie at Australia in December, out of the lineup against the Netherlands because he's not as good on clay as Arnaud Clement and Sebastien Grosjean.

Venus Williams moved up to second and Martina Hingis to third in last week's WTA rankings. Both jumped Lindsay Davenport, who stands to lose a good number of points as she remains out after surgery. Her ranking will be protected when she returns, though.

Swedish pro Andreas Vinciguerra will be sidelined for about a month after he broke a bone in his right hand when he slipped in a hole and fell while playing soccer at home a few weeks ago.

The first major events of the college season, the men's and women's USTA/ITA national team indoors, took place over the weekend. Both tourneys saw last year's NCAA champions lose in the semifinals, breaking long winning streaks. The Stanford women's 35-match run ended 4-3 at the hands of Georgia, which went on to beat Vanderbilt for the title. On the men's side, Illinois snapped defending champ Georgia's 30-match streak before losing to Stanford in the final.

"They have a lot of energy and, you know, they are watching 'The Simpsons at night. And I'm with Todd Martin watching 'On Golden Pond.' "

Sampras on the U.S. Davis Cup team's generation gap.

"It's not really like you've won. But I suppose you're the last one standing."

Venus Williams after her dissatisfying walkover title in Paris.

This week - ATP Tour

It's back to business on tour, with three big events. Juan Carlos Ferrero leads the field in Marseille, with Nicolas Lapentti doing the honors in Vina del Mar and Jiri Novak in Copenhagen.

This week - WTA Tour

Venus Williams headlines the field at the Diamond Games in Antwerp, though her sister Serena and local hero Kim Clijsters will miss the event with injuries. The other event is in Doha, Qatar, where Anna Kournikova would have been the top draw but pulled out this week with the always-humorous excuse of "exhaustion."

Next week - ATP Tour

Tennis comes back to the U.S. for the spring with the Kroger St. Jude in Memphis. There are also major tournaments in Rotterdam and Buenos Aires.

Next week - WTA Tour

With the longtime event in Oklahoma City gone, the women join the men in Memphis. Other events are in Dubai and Bogota.

Come back every Monday for a new Tennis Week at a Glance.

 

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