McEnroe Selection Lets U.S. Double Its Options : Tennis: He will be on the team throughout ’92. Against Argentina, he will be joined by Leach, Agassi and Sampras.

The best doubles team in the world? For years, the stock answer has been John McEnroe and anybody, which the U.S. Davis Cup team is going to test for the first time.

McEnroe, who has played and won more Davis Cup matches than any other U.S. player, was selected Monday as a member of the team that will play Argentina in a first-round match starting Jan. 31 in Hawaii. Also named to the team was doubles specialist Rick Leach, who joins previously announced selections Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi.

Although U.S. Davis Cup Captain Tom Gorman said that Sampras and Agassi probably will play singles against Argentina, he did not rule out the chance of McEnroe playing singles, too.

“The logical choices are Pete and Andre, but Mac’s there,” said Gorman. “We have options.”

The selection of Sampras, Agassi and McEnroe represents a departure from the standard U.S. method of naming a team, which in recent years has always included two singles players and a doubles team. Gorman grew to dislike such a setup, especially after France waited until the last minute to announce who would play against the United States in last month’s Davis Cup final. France upset the defending Davis Cup champions, 4-1, in Lyon, France.

“Before, we were always locked into it,” Gorman said. “I had no options, no flexibility. When we played the French, three days before the match we didn’t know who they would play. And we didn’t know who would play the doubles until the day before.

“One of the things we’re doing is to create some unrest in our opponent’s mind (about) who is playing,” Gorman said. “We’re not trying to trick anyone, we just want to have options.”

In McEnroe, Gorman is selecting the most experienced player in U.S. Davis Cup history. McEnroe, 32, played his first Davis Cup match in 1978, when Sampras was 6 years old, and has won a U.S. record 56 singles and doubles matches. McEnroe also holds the U.S. record for most times named to the team, 26; matches, 65; singles matches, 49, and singles victories, 41.

“He wants to be part of Davis Cup,” Gorman said. “He knows he can help.”

Gorman could pair McEnroe with either Sampras or Leach in doubles. Gorman said McEnroe’s place on the team covers any match the United States plays in 1992.

“My perfect team right now would be Agassi, Sampras, Courier and McEnroe all there,” Gorman said. “But because of how we’ve done things in the past, how the players mentally geared for it, would Sampras come in and just play doubles? Would Courier come in and just play doubles? I don’t know. That would be the perfect thing that may come together with McEnroe’s influence. That would be part of gathering some real team strength.”