Injuries Deplete U.S. Davis Cup Team

Tom Gullikson says putting together a Davis Cup team is always a “bit of a jigsaw puzzle.” But the U.S. captain thought he had most of the pieces in place for the April 4-6 quarterfinal tie against the Netherlands at the Palisades Tennis Club . . . until the events of the last few days shook his world.

Sure, Pete Sampras and Michael Chang had scheduling conflicts with a tournament in Hong Kong and were out of the picture, but the cupboard wasn’t exactly bare. There was Jim Courier, who came through with two crucial singles victories in the United States’ first-round tie in Brazil. There was Andre Agassi, who has won 14 consecutive Davis Cup singles matches in the last four years. There was Todd Martin, a top-notch singles player who is also an exceptional doubles player. And there was MaliVai Washington, who competed for the U.S. team in Brazil.

But then Washington, who first suffered a trauma injury to his left knee in Brazil, re-injured the knee during a tournament in Memphis last week. Agassi, ranked No. 14 in the world, went down later in the same tournament, re-injuring the left ankle that kept him from playing in Brazil.

And Gullikson got the crowning blow at midnight Monday, when Martin called to say he was having arthroscopic elbow surgery Tuesday to remove a bone spur.

So the Tuesday press conference at the Palisades, staged to announce the U.S. team, ended up being a case of Courier’s in, Martin’s out and everybody else is a maybe.

“Andre’s going to test the ankle in practice later this week and then he’s going to see if he can get enough matches in to build his confidence to the point where he feels he can help the team,” said Gullikson, who has until 10 days before the tie to announce the team. “He hasn’t really played that much since the U.S. Open, so it’s important he’s able to get some matches in.”

If Agassi is unable to play, Washington is a possibility, depending on his rate of recovery.

The injury tidal wave also might have washed away Gullikson’s plans for the doubles. He was leaning toward including Laguna Beach’s Rick Leach and partner Jonathan Stark, who make up the world’s second-ranked doubles team, but he’s now considering Plan B. Alex O’Brien, who played the final singles match in Brazil when Washington was injured, and partner Richey Reneberg are again a possibility because both are ranked among the top 30 in singles.

“One thing lacking in U.S. teams over the last couple of years is chemistry when it came to doubles,” Gullikson said. “Leach and Stark are really playing well right now, they’ve made it to two finals and three semis already this year, so they were the leading candidates.”

The loss of Martin hit Gullikson very hard. Martin, who always makes himself available for Davis Cup play, is the type of versatile player a Davis Cup captain loves to have on his four-man team.

Now, the only one Gullikson figures he can count on is 16th-ranked Courier.

“He’s very healthy, very fit and more focused now than I’ve seen him since he was ranked No. 1 four years ago,” Gullikson said. “He was just unbelievable in Brazil [where temperatures exceeded 100 degrees]. They put two bags of IV into him after that last match and then he left for Dubai, where he beat three of the top 15 players in the world to get to the semis.”

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Seating for the Davis Cup matches--the first such competition in Orange County since the United States beat South Africa at the Newport Beach Tennis Club in 1977--has been expanded to 5,200 under the latest plan for bleacher construction at the Palisades.

A number of booths and exhibits, as well as live music, are planned to give the event a festival atmosphere. Action will begin at 11 a.m. on Friday, 1 p.m. on Saturday and 11 a.m. on Sunday. Three-day ticket packages are available only through Ticketmaster at (714) 740-2000.

Organizers expect the event to be sold out by the end of this week.