Italy Can’t Dream of Beating U.S.

Time to talk tennis dynasty? The notion comes from a lighthearted Pete Sampras, and after a star-spangled weekend there are few Italians who would deny it.

“The sun plus two wins-- finito ,” happy U.S. Davis Cup captain Tom Gullikson said as blue sky crept back over soggy Sicily.

With Sampras leading the way, American all-stars took an unbeatable 3-0 lead over Italy here Saturday to advance to the Davis Cup semifinals against Sweden in September.

“We’re pretty good,” No. 1-ranked Sampras joked when a reporter asked if the ’95 Davis Cup team could bear comparison with the basketball Dream Team in the Barcelona Olympics.

“American tennis is almost a dynasty,” Sampras said, noting the exploits of Davis Cup teammate Andre Agassi, ranked No. 2 in the world, and naming other top American players such as Michael Chang, Todd Martin and Jim Courier.

Playing on a clay court for the first time in almost a year, Sampras matched Agassi’s straight-set victory, defeating Renzo Furlan, 7-6 (7-3), 6-3, 6-0.

In the doubles, a composed Jared Palmer and a feisty Richey Reneberg clinched the American victory by defeating Stefano Pescosolido and Cristian Brandi, 6-1, 6-7 (7-2), 6-4, 6-3.

Palmer and Reneberg, ranked first in doubles after their victory in the Australian Open, capitalized on the errors of the inexperienced Italians and kept up the pressure despite a tiebreaker loss in the second set--the only set Sampras’ dynasty-in-the-making dropped in two days.

“It has meant a lot to the morale of all U.S. players to have Sampras and Agassi on the team,” Reneberg said. “It’s really commendable that they made the trip. It showed we thought the Italians were good players, and we had to bring our best to win.”

The doubles team had to work harder than Sampras did against Furlan, who is ranked 67th in the world.

“I got off to a good start, 4-1,” Sampras said. “Then he came back, and I realized that I needed to be patient and work the point more. He served well, hitting heavy balls to my high backhand, but as the match wore on, I started to play better.”

At the end of the first set, Sampras said the idea that he was 1-9 in tiebreakers this season weighed on him. Furlan saved five set points but could not keep pace with Sampras in the tiebreaker.

“Once I got the first set, I could feel the air coming out of the balloon,” Sampras said.

Said Furlan: “I was very concentrated in the first two sets. In the third I started to feel hopeless, and that’s how it went.”

The top-ranked Americans, who played in the Lipton finals last week in Florida, were late starters on a Davis Cup team that is America’s best, at least on paper, since 1984, when John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors were 1-2 in a losing effort in Sweden. Las Vegas, possible site for this year’s U.S.-Sweden semifinal, is Agassi’s hometown.

“Joining the Davis team represented a sacrifice for both of us,” Sampras said, “because it really doesn’t fit with our schedules. Still, if I’m healthy after the U.S. Open, I do see myself playing in the Davis.”

Rain and cold that forced postponement of Sampras’ match until Saturday also left its imprint on center court at the 5,100-seat Circolo del Tennis. The sun was shining by the time the afternoon doubles began, after Sampras played his first match on clay since the French Open last June.

“After playing for an hour and a half I was still cold,” he said.

Moisture in the red clay took its toll on Sampras’ gear. Five times, strings in his rackets broke.

“They’re strung at 33 kilos and the gut is very fine. What with dirt on the ball in damp condition and more spin, after three games or so they break. I’ll go through 10 frames and maybe 3,000 strings between now and the French Open,” said Sampras, who said he intends to remain in Europe until then, refining his clay technique at tournaments in Monte Carlo and Barcelona.

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Davis Cup Notes

Sweden clinched its victory over Austria in doubles when Jan Apell and Jonas Bjorkman defeated Thomas Muster and Alex Antonitsch, 7-5, 6-3, 6-3, at Vaxjo, Sweden. . . . Boris Becker and Michael Stich gave Germany a 2-1 lead over the Netherlands with a 6-7 (7-1), 4-6, 6-4, 7-5, 6-3 victory over Paul Haarhuis and Jacco Eltingh at Utrecht, Netherlands. . . . Russia took a 2-1 lead over South Africa as Yevgeny Kafelnikov and Andrei Olhovskiy defeated Wayne Ferreira and Gary Muller, 4-6, 4-6, 7-6 (8-6), 7-6 (7-3), 6-3, at Moscow.