U.S. Is in Doubles Jeopardy

As it applies to the U.S. Davis Cup team, dream is becoming the operative word when describing this Dream Team.

As in, “Not in your wildest. . . .”

Three times the United States has played matches at the Scandinavium in Goteborg and three times it has been shocked, injured and humiliated. It happened again Friday, on the opening day of the Davis Cup final against Sweden.

The first blow was struck by Jonas Bjorkman, who reminded Michael Chang of what a disappointment his season has been. Chang’s loss was followed by that of Pete Sampras, who pulled a calf muscle, defaulted to Magnus Larsson and won’t play again here this weekend.

Suddenly, even the efforts of the Nos. 1 and 3 players in the world were not enough to overcome whatever bad karma Sweden holds over American tennis players. Instead of gloating over an expected 2-0 first-day lead, one of the best Davis Cup teams the United States has ever assembled is in a 0-2 hole.

The best-of-five match final continues today with a doubles match that the U.S. must win to stay alive. The competition concludes Sunday with two singles matches.

Only once has a team come back from 0-2 to win a Davis Cup final. That was in 1939 when Australia defeated the U.S., 3-2. Sweden has not lost a 2-0 lead at any level of Davis Cup play.

Friday’s results were stunning, by any measure. Bjorkman dismantled Chang, 7-5, 1-6, 6-3, 6-3. Larsson stopped Sampras, 3-6, 7-6 (7-1), 2-1, retired.

Sampras was taken from the arena in a wheelchair and was sent to Sahlgrensk Hospital for an MRI test Friday night. According to Dr. George Fareed, U.S. Davis Cup team physician, Sampras will be out three to four weeks. Todd Martin--who will team with Jonathan Stark in doubles against Bjorkman and Nicklas Kulti--is expected to replace Sampras on Sunday. Chang is scheduled to play the other singles match.

After a year of coddling, cajoling and begging his country’s best tennis players and finally getting their agreement to play here, U.S. captain Tom Gullikson surveyed the wreckage of the day.

“We’re in a position we’re not used to,” he said. “We’re usually up two-love. . . . Our back is really against the wall.”

Gullikson annually has trouble getting players to commit to the early-round Davis Cup matches. The later rounds, coming late in the 11-month professional tennis season, require all of Gullikson’s arm-twisting. His ability to persuade players to risk injury and play has been greatly compromised by the events of Friday.

“The bottom line is, you’ve got to make sense of the schedule and not make our best pro players play 11 months of the year,” Gullikson said. “It’s just too much tennis.”

Apparently, Sweden is too much for the Americans. Until Friday, the U.S. Davis Cup team’s most embarrassing defeat came against the Swedes in 1984, when tennis’ original Dream Team of No. 1 John McEnroe and No. 3 Jimmy Connors was beaten here by a group of young and mostly unknown players.

Goteborg was also the scene of an eerily similar Davis Cup competition, the semifinals in 1994. Sampras played Larsson and injured his leg but managed to win a four-setter on the first day. The U.S. held a 2-1 lead going into the reverse singles. Sampras played Stefan Edberg in the first match and defaulted because of a strained right hamstring. The U.S. lost.

Gullikson spoke Thursday of burying the ghosts of 1984 and 1994, but it is his team that looks buried now.

Chang’s loss ordinarily would have been enough to dampen U.S. hopes. He was deeply disappointed after the match and dejected in a way the upbeat, highly religious Chang seldom discloses. He called his performance in the first set “a joke.”

For nearly three hours, Chang tried to plug the holes the fourth-ranked Bjorkman revealed in his game. By the end, Chang’s spirit was gushing from him.

“I’ve had disappointing times in my career,” Chang said. “At this point, I’m pretty far down there. It’s never an easy thing to go through. Each day becomes difficult to pick yourself back up and go on and work hard.”

Chang three times has been a runner-up in Grand Slam events and took his loss in the semifinals of the U.S. Open in September particularly hard.

“It’s almost as if somebody’s teasing you with something, giving you a piece of candy,” Chang said at the time. “You go like this [reaching out with his hand]. They take it away.”

Playing in his first Davis Cup final in seven years, Chang was especially determined to play well for his teammates, who often snub him on the ATP Tour. His chance to be a hero and one of the guys was lost.

Chang was out of sync from the start. He got in only 28% of his first serves in the first set. “The first set was pretty much a disaster,” Chang said, puzzled that he was unable to handle Bjorkman, also a U.S. Open semifinalist. Bjorkman was poised and loose in front of 11,558 boisterous fans.

Chang’s frustration runs deeper because he has analyzed every aspect of his game and tweaked and upgraded himself incessantly. There’s nothing left to improve. The thought has occurred to Chang--Where do I go from here?

Down, it would seem. Chang is 1-5 since the U.S. Open and, with no tour events left, he gets the next month to think about his might-have-been year.

“I wish I could tell you that I’ve had times where I was absolutely lazy and just didn’t do anything, didn’t work on my game,” he said. “I can’t explain it to you. If I knew the reason, I would fix it, I would correct it. I would never go through having lost this many matches. I would never go through that without making a change.”

Sampras didn’t look strong against Larsson, calf or no calf. Larsson, who has now beaten Sampras three times this year, was serving strongly. He had 19 aces to Sampras’ 10 and got in 67% of his first serves.

As the match wore on and Sampras’ mobility decreased, Larsson took control and waited out the inevitable.

Sampras would not speak to a pool reporter after the match, but the USTA issued a two-sentence statement from Sampras that said he felt pain in his calf during the second set.

“It didn’t make sense to continue the way I was feeling,” Sampras said.

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DAVIS CUP AT A GLANCE

Sweden 2,

USA 0

Best of five matches

*

FRIDAY’S RESULTS

* SINGLES--Jonas Bjorkman (Sweden) d. Michael Chang, 7-5, 1-6, 6-3, 6-3; Magnus Larsson (Sweden) d. Pete Sampras, 3-6, 7-6 (7-1), 2-1, retired.

TODAY’S SCHEDULE

* DOUBLES--Jonathan Stark-Todd Martin (U.S.) vs. Jonas Bjorkman-Nicklas Kulti.