TENNIS / THOMAS BONK : Agassi Says Sampras Will Do Fine in Davis Cup

At 21, Andre Agassi is the senior singles player for the U.S. in its Davis Cup final against France, but he doesn’t plan on giving any advice to 20-year-old first-timer Pete Sampras.

“He doesn’t seem to be the kind of person who lets the pressure get to him and I think it’s really best that you just experience Davis Cup anyway,” Agassi said. “I’m pretty confident he’ll handle it fine . . . although a few people have proven you can’t count on that.”

Sampras sounded slightly unsure of himself: “I don’t know how I’ll react . . . maybe I am putting a little too much pressure on myself.”

The United States defends its Davis Cup title late this month at Lyon, France, against a French team led by Davis Cup veterans Guy Forget and Henri Leconte. Doubles players Ken Flach and Robert Seguso join Agassi and Sampras on the U.S. squad chosen by captain Tom Gorman.

Gorman polled Agassi, John McEnroe and Brad Gilbert about Sampras’ ability to handle the pressure of making his Davis Cup debut in a final and was buoyed by the results. “Pete’s always been cool,” Gorman said.

Agassi, who plays David Wheaton in an exhibition Wednesday night at the Forum, said he thinks that France might be asking too much of Forget. The French star is probably going to play doubles, possibly with Leconte, in addition to playing two singles matches.

“It’s fair to say he’s capable of it, but to say it’s likely, well, I wouldn’t want to be in the position of having to win three matches in three days,” Agassi said.

Courier pigeon? Sampras said he was “a bit surprised” when No. 2-ranked Jim Courier was not chosen to play the final, although the indoor carpet on which the final will be played is probably Courier’s worst surface.

“I mean, he’s the No. 2 player in the world and he isn’t playing?” Sampras said. “(But) his performance in Davis Cup hasn’t been that great. I’m not saying he has played badly in Davis Cup, but he did lose two matches (against Mexico) and he lost to (Germany’s Michael) Stich and didn’t play too well.

“Maybe Courier doesn’t play his best tennis in Davis Cup,” Sampras said. “I don’t know.”

Sad Mac: Gorman said he realized right away that John McEnroe was upset when he told McEnroe he was being bypassed for the Davis Cup final.

Why? “Because he didn’t say much,” Gorman said.

Not that easy: Arthur Ashe, who was the U.S. captain on the 1982 Davis Cup title team, said the U.S. ought to be favored. Ashe sympathized with Gorman on the difficulty of getting individual players to compete in a team format like Davis Cup.

“It’s not easy to try to get athletes who are involved in individual sports that engender self-centeredness to forget that, even for five or six days, and get together as a group and act, even though it’s a charade, like they’re the best of friends,” Ashe said.

Revolt? There are signs that the Women’s Tennis Assn., will follow the lead of the men’s tennis organization, the Assn. of Tennis Professionals, and form its own tour. The only hang-up is that the WTA has a contract with worldwide sponsor Kraft General Foods through 1994.

Gerry Smith, chief executive officer of the WTA, has admitted he has looked into the WTA’s breaking away from Kraft and going it alone, for two apparent reasons: autonomy from a sponsor and impending dollar signs. The ATP recently signed a $100-million deal with International Management Group to handle marketing of the men’s game.

According to some accounts, the WTA plan calls for 10 $1-million tournaments featuring eight of the top 10 players and 10 events worth $500,000 each. Financial guarantees to attract a playing field would be allowed.