Davis Cup Notebook : Gilbert Will Attempt to Come to the Rescue of U.S. Hopes

There is the impression here, two days before the United States is to play West Germany in a Davis Cup tennis semifinal, that America’s Brad Gilbert will enter the court directly from a phone booth, having just changed into a blue and red outfit with a big “S” on the chest.

The West German side seems to fear that, the American side is hoping for it. Which leaves those in the category of objective observers scratching their heads in amazement.

Gilbert is a fine player, good enough to be ranked 15th in the world. But the reality is that this crusader might have a slightly faded cape when he takes to the fast carpet of Munich’s Olympiahalle Friday evening. Those who are hoping for a Superman behind America’s Davis Cup effort might have to settle for a wrinkled Clark Kent.

Gilbert, a last-second substitute for the injured John McEnroe, has the West Germans frightened because of his 3-1 record against their star player Boris Becker. But Gilbert is the first to acknowledge that his days of heroic rescues may be numbered.

“Yes, it would be nice to come in here and be the reason we win,” Gilbert said. “But I’m not thinking a lot about that.

“I was surprised when Tom Gorman picked me to play. I’m 28 now, and I thought my Davis Cup days were behind me. I haven’t played Davis Cup in three years, and there are a lot of good young players coming up now in the U.S.

“This was just a situation where they needed me. Gorman doesn’t want to put this much pressure, a Davis Cup semifinal match, on the younger players. And the two other guys he called couldn’t do it, for whatever reasons. So here I am.”

The two others sought by team captain Gorman before his Friday night call to Gilbert at his home in Alameda, Calif., were Michael Chang and Tim Mayotte. Both allegedly felt too mentally and physically tired to jump in and compete effectively in such a pressure situation. Gorman, who talked to each, has declined to elaborate, saying only, “I don’t even want to try and explain on their behalf, because I might not use the exact words they would and I might leave a wrong impression somewhere. So I’m just saying, to everybody who asks, that they were just unavailable at this time.”

There is an undercurrent of criticism about Gorman’s perceived failure to anticipate, after McEnroe hurt his shoulder at Wimbledon, that the injury might carry over into the Davis Cup and that other top players, such as Chang and Mayotte, should have been contacted well before last week.

To which Gorman responds, “Within 2 1/2 hours after Mac was hurt, I was in touch with his trainer. At that time, the injury didn’t appear to be serious, and, remember, he did go out and play Stefan Edberg in three hard sets the next day.

“It was just one of those injuries you can’t tell about. It’s not like watching Magic Johnson pull up and grab his hamstring in a basketball game. With that sort of injury, you can see it. It is right in front of you. With John’s, it wasn’t that simple.”

Three of the four members of the U.S. team have never lost a Davis Cup match. Andre Agassi is 7-0, Ken Flach and Robert Seguso are 10-0 (Flach actually is 11-0, having won a doubles match with Paul Annacone). Gilbert is 4-2, and has made all three of his previous Davis Cup appearances on the road.

West Germany’s Becker is 24-2. His only losses have come at the hands of the same player, Sergio Casal of Spain, both in long, close matches.

Agassi has a new coach who is also serving as a nutrition specialist--meaning more hard work and fewer trips to junk food restaurants. And Agassi does look stronger, a bit heavier, a bit faster.

His attitude also appears to be extremely positive. He arrived here at 8:30 Monday morning, after an eight-hour flight, and was on the practice court by 10:30.

Many West Germans are still talking about the television situation in this country during Wimbledon, where both Becker and Steffi Graf won and an excited country of tennis fans could not get enough of it. Actually, most of them got none of it. The television set-up in West Germany gave sole rights to a cable company, but only those who were wired for that particular cable hookup got to see Wimbledon. And those who where wired constituted only 10% of West Germany’s TV audience.

Gilbert has become the leading quipster this week among the players. Some samples:

--When he got his first look at the Pegulan carpet surface the matches will be played on, he said, “I’ve got exactly this same stuff at home, only it’s wall-to-wall and tan.”

--When called by a German TV reporter an “American tactical weapon” in this Davis Cup, Gilbert said, “I think the B-2 bomber is an American tactical weapon.”

--And when talking about his heavy schedule after the Davis Cup, a schedule that will have him in a tournament every week for 10 weeks, Gilbert said, “Baseball players call that their salary stretch.”