Mexico’s Fans Come Out Cheering Loudly : Davis Cup: Small contingent drowns out the thousands of U.S. rooters.

Alfonso Aldrete got off work Thursday afternoon in his hometown of Hermosillo, Mexico, drove all night, and arrived here Friday just in time for the opening of the Davis Cup matches between the U.S. and Mexico.

Oh sure, he knew long before his nine-hour drive that Mexico had practically no chance of knocking off the U.S. team but his countrymen needed his support, didn’t they?

So there he was Friday, along with what he estimated to be about 100 or so other fans from Baja California, cheering and screaming so loudly that they were drowning out the thousands of U.S. fans at the La Costa Resort Hotel and Spa.

“This is not like the Super Bowl or soccer, no,” Aldrete said. “But in our country, it is very, very big.”

But, alas, their moral support did little good. Mexico lost both of Friday’s singles matches in the first round, which means that the doubles team of Rick Leach and Jim Pugh can clinch a second-round berth for the U.S. with a victory today.

“It’s tough to believe in miracles,” Aldrete said, shaking his head. “I’m afraid we don’t have a very good team right now.”

Oh, well, you can’t blame Aldrete and the Mexican fans for having had a glimmer of hope. Things looked promising for them when Jorge Lozano took the first set from Jay Berger in the opening singles match, and was leading 4-1 in the second set.

You should have seen them.

There was Salvador Villanueva running laps around the stadium, carrying a Mexican flag. Juan Manuel Moncillas, also from Hermosillo, was yelling, “Arribe! Arribe!” after each point won by Lozano. And all of a sudden, U.S. fans were feeling quite uncomfortable.

Of course, those rooting for the U.S. might have been feeling that way even if Berger had not lost a point, considering the architectural gaffe of La Costa’s stands that leaves precious few seats with unobstructed views.

“This is absolutely ridiculous,” said Gail Forbes of La Jolla. “I can’t believe I paid $40 apiece for these, and I can’t see half of the court. I’ve moved around a few times, and the way I figure it, there’s about $78,000 worth of seats that aren’t worth a dime.”

Aldrete and his buddies solved part of that problem by standing throughout the matches, but as the U.S. slowly began to dominate, there was less and less that the Mexican fans wanted to see.

“If we won, we were going to go crazy,” Aldrete said. “But if we lost, we said we’d drink a lot.”

“That’s why I feel so bad that I lost,” said Lozano, 26, a three-time All-American at USC. “It means a lot to my country. The Davis Cup is very important to us.

“It was a good match. But I didn’t come here to play a good match. I came here to win.

“Obviously, it was a letdown for everybody that was pulling for Mexico.”

Yes, there might not have been a lot of Mexican fans, but, oh, how they were heard.

Said Berger: “The Latin attitude is a very happy attitude. Let’s scream. Let’s dance. Let’s shout. That’s the way it is. That’s the way they were brought up.”

That’s not exactly the kind of comment that will land Berger a job in foreign relations, but you can just imagine his appreciation for not experiencing the kind of atmosphere had he lost.