Now It’s Time for Defense : Tennis: The United States, seeking another Davis Cup victory, faces France, which hasn’t won since 1932.

Here, in the Rhone Valley, in a place known as the capital of Julius Caesar’s Roman Occidental empire and for fine Beaujolais wine, the U.S. Davis Cup team will try to extend its reign with a vintage performance.

The United States, which won its first Davis Cup since 1982 with a victory over Australia in last year’s final, opens defense of its international tennis trophy today, unleashing Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras against a French team that hasn’t won since 1932.

Agassi meets Guy Forget, France’s top player, in the first singles match, followed by the Davis Cup debut of Sampras, who plays veteran Henri Leconte, an 11th-hour choice by captain Yannick Noah and announced in an elaborate draw ceremony Thursday.

The site of the draw was the 17th Century L’Hotel de Ville, or city hall. Players from both teams sat on a raised platform in the second-floor Grand Salon, dominated by 17 glass chandeliers, a marble fireplace, ornate gold leaf decoration and red velvet drapes.

It was in this room in 1792 that the Marseillaise was sung for the first time. But this time, they were singing a different tune. As it normally goes, the ceremony eventually evolved into a news conference where talk of pressure became nothing more than some sort of bearnaise sauce poured by one team on the other.

“If you’ve got the crowd behind you, you kind of should win,” said Ken Flach, the U.S. doubles partner of Robert Seguso. “It’s like college basketball--you should win playing at home. They’ll (the U.S. singles players) have a tough time, I think.”

The French team, while pointing to the fact that the United States is favored, did not appear successful in shifting the burden. After talking about how great he felt to be in a final, Leconte paused, smiled wanly and added softly: “I feel the pressure already.”

Leconte is clearly the key in France’s first final since a loss to a John McEnroe-led U.S. team in 1982. Leconte underwent surgery for a herniated disk after Wimbledon, his third such operation. He has played just six matches since--three in Paris Open qualifying, two in a Challenger series event and only one on the ATP Tour. His ranking has fallen to No. 161.

Sampras, who has never played Leconte, said he is wary of the left-hander.

“He could blow me off the court because he’s so dangerous. . . and he can also be so bad,” Sampras said.

Noah bypassed three other choices--Fabrice Santoro, Arnaud Boetsch and Oliver Delaitre--so he could use Leconte. Noah reasoned that for one weekend, Leconte’s experience outweighs his lack of match play since back surgery.

“No, he hasn’t played much, but he has the potential to beat anybody, anywhere,” Noah said. “The feeling I have is he’s been very close to dead, and now he’s come back to life.”

For their part, the U.S. team was hardly as dramatic during its press conference. The players appeared loose and easy-going, especially Agassi, who joked with photographers, asked a reporter about his running shoes, practiced an imaginary golf swing and rested his head on the microphone.

When Flach was asked whether working on Thanksgiving heightened feelings of being away from home, he interrupted the question to answer: “It heightens the fact that we’re finally going to get a good meal--turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberries. . . .”

Said Agassi: “. . . McDonald’s. . . .”

Lyon is regarded as the epicenter of France’s gastronomic efforts, but the U.S. team has not seemed to notice. But then it sort of seemed to fit in to the whole low-key approach the U.S. team is taking in defense of its Davis Cup title.

“We know it’s a final,” U.S. captain Tom Gorman said. “But we are certainly not talking about it being an incredible, pressure-cooker situation.”

Davis Cup Notes

French captain Yannick Noah puzzled many when he said he might insert himself into the doubles with Guy Forget and replace Henri Leconte. However, Noah is not eligible because he had not announced himself as part of the team, which he could have done as recently as a week ago. . . . Ken Flach said he wouldn’t be surprised to see Leconte replaced, depending on how the Leconte-Pete Sampras match comes out. “If things don’t go too tough for Henri, I think he’ll play,” Flach said. “But I don’t think it’s etched in stone.”