West Germany Saves Becker, Drops Doubles

West Germany was one step away from pushing the U.S. Davis Cup team over the edge Saturday, sending the Americans into tennis oblivion.

They call it zonal competition, but John McEnroe has a better assessment for the impending prospect.

“The minor leagues,” he said.

Banishment to Triple-A--or maybe Double-A is more appropriate--was averted when the West Germans made things more interesting by holding back their ace, Boris Becker, in the doubles match. When his team took a 2-0 lead in Friday’s singles matches, West German captain Nikki Pilic obviously felt safe enough to take a small gamble.

Pilic watched Becker practice on Saturday morning and noticed his star player looked stiff after his five-set, 6-hour 20-minute victory over McEnroe.

He also realized that Becker and Eric Jelen would have to face Wimbledon champions Robert Seguso and Ken Flach in the doubles competition of this best-of-five match relegation round. So, Pilic decided to look to the future and substituted Ricki Osterthun for Becker.

It wasn’t vintage Flach and Seguso--both had stayed at the Civic Center to the conclusion of the McEnroe-Becker match late Friday night--but they played well enough to win, 6-3, 8-6, 14-12, before 9,470 spectators.

“Well, I was very, very surprised,” U.S. captain Tom Gorman said of the last-minute switch. “And I think my face gave it away because I had something to smile about. I always had confidence in Goose (Seguso) and Ken. They still have a perfect record in Davis Cup. But neither one of them got to sleep until about 3:30 last night after sticking around and watching John’s match.

“So I was very happy when I found out they substituted Boris. The actual strategy is one that I’m not absolutely sure that I would use. I think you have to keep putting your best players forward all the time. That is Germany saying to us, ‘OK, we’ll concede two points and put all the pressure on Boris.’ . . . It’s like saying, ‘Here, have a match.’ ”

Gorman said West Germany’s strategy would be comparable to the Lakers deciding to sit a tired Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for Game 6 of the NBA Finals against the Celtics, so they’d be fresh for Game 7. If he had such a decision to make, Gorman would have preferred to use the ammunition today, not wait for any tomorrows.

“It was an interesting move,” he said. “The way our guys were playing, that was the slowest I’ve seen our team in any of the matches I’ve been involved with Flach and Seguso. They were so emotionally drained from the day of tennis, I knew that our guys weren’t going to be as sharp.”

However, Flach and Seguso begged to differ with Gorman, saying they thought the West Germans made the correct move.

“It was a wise decision on their part,” Flach said. “There’s no reason for Boris to play five sets for five hours, and even though he’s in great shape, he’s still going to be stiff this (Saturday) morning. Coming back for tomorrow’s matches is so important. They’ve already accomplished what they wanted, they’ve got two singles to set it up for Boris to win it.”

Which brings us to today’s matches. Will the gamble pay off? Was betting on the future--saving Becker for the fifth and possibly deciding match--the right choice or the wrong move?

If McEnroe can somehow manage to pull off one more victory, summoning another classic from his weary body, it will come down to Tim Mayotte and Becker. Although Becker will force the play, in all reality, the United States’ future in Davis Cup likely consists of this battle: Tim Mayotte versus Tim Mayotte.

In his five meetings with Becker, Mayotte is almost even, having won on two occasions. However, more importantly, Mayotte hasn’t fared as well in the battle against himself, squandering huge leads at Wimbledon and here on Friday against Jelen. So far, there isn’t any reason to believe that will change with the possible importance of today’s match, not with the pressure of his friends and relatives from nearby Springfield, Mass., in the audience and with U.S. tennis on the brink of oblivion.