TENNIS ROUNDUP : McEnroe Seeks Word on His Davis Cup Status

John McEnroe is getting tired of waiting to hear whether he’s on this year’s Davis Cup team.

“I’ve been doing this 15 years, if they’ve decided to go another way they should tell me,” McEnroe said Tuesday after beating Sweden’s Jan Apell, 6-1, 7-5, in the first round of the Volvo International in New Haven, Conn.

“And if I’m as important a part of the team as they say I am, they should name me to the team.”

Tom Gorman, the Davis Cup captain, named Jim Courier and Andre Agassi on July 30 to the U.S. team that will play Sweden in the Davis Cup semifinals in Minneapolis. He said the doubles team would be named later.

McEnroe said he has to know soon so he can start planning. He already is disappointed that Gorman didn’t pick him to play in the Davis Cup finals last year in France and that he wasn’t named to the U.S. Olympic team.

“These are two things that I’ve got burned out of the last year,” McEnroe said. “It hurt me, and I think it hurt the U.S. as well. What happens is you start to lose a little interest in the whole thing, and this is something I still want to do. It’s just incredible.

“I don’t look at it as a shoo-in because I can’t,” he said. “I’m ready to play. I want to play, I want to be there that week. I think we can win it all.”

Gorman declined comment until he talked to McEnroe. The U.S. Tennis Assn. said it will respond to McEnroe’s complaint today.

The start of the Volvo International, washed out by rain Monday, was delayed about about two hours Tuesday. Court problems and subsequent patchwork caused further delays Tuesday night.

No. 10-seeded Alexander Volkov, No. 11 Brad Gilbert, No. 12 Amos Mansdorf, No. 14 Andrei Cherkasov and No. 16 Paul Haarhuis joined No. 9 McEnroe in advancing to the second round.

No. 15 Omar Camporese was the only seeded player to lose, falling to Martin Damm, 4-6, 7-5, 6-2.

McEnroe took advantage of the travel-weary Apell, who arrived Monday night from Germany, McEnroe made the 22-year-old Swede run throughout the match and handled Apell’s serves with ease. Apell won on only 27 of his 46 first serves and 10 of his 27 second serves.

Despite his travels and the fact he hadn’t played outdoors on a hardcourt in 17 months, Apell didn’t give up.

“He surprised me,” McEnroe said. “I knew he had come from Europe and been on the clay courts so I knew it was important to get a strong start to discourage him.”

At times McEnroe was discouraged, too, yelling at a photographer, a linesmen and himself, but Apell said it wasn’t too distracting.

“He wasn’t too bad today,” Apell said. “I enjoyed it.”

Jimmy Connors, 39, relying on his arsenal of groundstrokes, lobs and passing shots, needed only 64 minutes to beat Dave DiLucia, 6-1, 6-2, in the first round of the U.S. Hardcourts at Indianapolis.

DiLucia, 22, broke Connors’ serve to open the second set, but the 11th-seeded Connors answered with a break of his own and coasted the rest of the way.

David Wheaton, seeded 13th, rallied past Rodolphe Gilbert of France, 2-6, 6-2, 6-4, and No. 9 Javier Sanchez of Spain won when Leonardo Lavalle of Mexico retired because of a foot infection while trailing, 4-1.

Wheaton made several unforced errors in the first set but came back with his 120-m.p.h. serves and crisp volleys. The 6-foot-4 Wheaton won match point a 117-m.p.h. service winner.

Alberto Mancini, playing his first hardcourt match in almost five months, was beaten by Spain’s Tomas Carbonell, 6-1, 6-4.

Top-ranked Monica Seles was slowed by an ankle injury and served five double faults, but still overpowered Marianne Werdel, 6-2, 6-4, in the second round of the Canadian Open at Montreal.

“My serve let me down a little. I wasn’t finding my rhythm,” Seles said.

About the ankle, which she injured during Saturday’s semifinal match of the Virginia Slims of Los Angeles, Seles said: “It hurt a little at a few points, but it’s only a little sprain. It’s not big, or I wouldn’t have played.”

In other matches, fifth-seeded Katerina Maleeva downed Noelle van Lottum of France, 6-3, 6-3, and eighth-seeded Lori McNeil defeated Donna Faber, 6-2, 6-3.