Brazil Fanfare Awaits U.S. Davis Cup Team
For most of the year, professional tennis players are accustomed to a high level of comfort from their travel and lodging and the strictest comportment from fans. Alas, for the hypersensitive pros, seldom are both offered in a Davis Cup competition.
The U.S. team’s tolerance for hardship will be tested beginning today against Brazil in the first round of Davis Cup competition. Today’s two opening-round singles matches take place at Ribeirao Preto, outside Sao Paulo, and will be played on clay.
The United States will have to do without Andre Agassi, who injured his ankle. MaliVai Washington will replace Agassi and play singles, as will Jim Courier. Alex O’Brien and Richey Reneberg will play doubles.
Gustavo Kuerten and Fernando Meligeni will play for Brazil in singles, Roberto Jabali and Jaime Oncins in doubles. Courier will play Meligeni and Washington will play Kuerten today.
Housed in efficiency apartments and stuck in an industrial suburb, the American players will miss the luxury and glamour associated with the tour. The greatest shock, however, will be the volume and passion of the partisan crowds. U.S. Davis Cup captain Tom Gullikson laughingly understated the potential for fan involvement and said he expects to be greeted by a “reasonably unfriendly environment.”
Last September during a Davis Cup match at Sao Paulo, Austria’s Thomas Muster stormed off the court and forfeited in his doubles match, accusing Brazilian fans of acting “like animals.” The next day the entire Austrian team refused to play under the conditions, and forfeited the remaining matches. Brazil won, 4-1.
Muster and the Austrian federation were fined for failing to complete the match.
Muster complained that, among other things, someone in the crowd used a mirror to blind him.
“For three and a half hours we were sworn at, had things hurled at us, spat upon,” he said after the match. “I want police protection and [will] never again play here.”
The vice president of the Austrian Tennis Federation said Muster and others received death threats.
An investigation by the International Tennis Federation found no substantiation for any of the Austrian’s claims. Except one. One fan, the ITF found, was ejected when it was discovered he was using his mirrored sunglasses to distract Muster.
The ITF said it expects no problems this week.
Brazilians aren’t the only excitable fans. Complaints crop up wherever German fans appear, regardless of the host country. Boisterous German fans were blamed for the loss by an American doubles team in a Davis Cup match . . . at Kansas City, Mo.
The Germans were on the receiving end during a Davis Cup match in Mexico City in 1986. The Mexican team scored a huge upset, winning, 3-2, thanks in large part to a hostile crowd. The scene engendered this breathless headline in the next day’s editions of the German newspaper, Bild: “Mexico’s Scandal--Tennis Stars Trembled for Their Lives.”
With 127 countries participating, Davis Cup competition naturally offers a multicultural view of nationalism. But not all nations are difficult hosts. Things are not terribly taxing for France, the defending Davis Cup champion. The host Australians are earnestly serving the best they have to offer, and the French are obligingly exploiting Sydney. Guy Forget has been avidly surfing at Bondi Beach--just below the grassy bluffs where the French team conducts its morning yoga session.
The only blemish on the proceedings has affected both teams. Because of persistent rain last week, the grass courts at White City have been constantly covered with tarpaulins. The heat and humidity proved a fertile ground for a fungal outbreak. With 60% of the court taken over by the fungus, both the French and Australian Davis Cup teams adjourned to Melbourne for a week of practice.
The weather has cleared and the Sydney courts now appear slightly mottled but have been deemed adequate for play.
Which is more than the Russians offered the Germans for the semifinal in 1995. Fearful of the powerful games of Boris Becker and Michael Stich, even on clay, the Russians poured so much water on the court the night before the match that it was an unplayable mud pit.
The Russian tennis federation was fined $25,000 and the referee ordered the court be dried. Using two hand-held hair driers borrowed from the adjoining hotel, the Russians complied. Still, the hosts won in an upset, 3-2.
Russia has never been a favorite stop on the Davis Cup circuit, but the sweepstakes winner is, no doubt, India. Before a second-round match last year, even the hyper-polite Swedes threatened to boycott because food and water they brought with them had been held up at customs.
The United States has not overlooked the potential pitfalls of sampling local cuisine in Brazil. The U.S. delegation has brought its own chef to prepare meals for the players.
“We’ll use our own transportation, we’ll have our own security around the clock, but we do that for most places we go,” said Bo Driskill, chairman of the Davis Cup Committee for the USTA. “We feel pretty good about going down there. We’ve been in South America before. We know the boisterous crowds.”
If the U.S. team wins, it will play the winner of the Romania-Netherlands match, April 4-6, probably at Palisades Club in Newport Beach or Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades.
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Davis Cup at a Glance
* When: Today-Sunday
* Where: Ribeirao Preto, Brazil.
* TV: ESPN, 8 a.m. (delayed).
* Teams: United States vs. Brazil
* Today’s singles: Courier (U.S.) vs. Meligeni; Washington (U.S.) vs. Kuerten.
