Rain Ties Up Davis Cup Schedule

The Davis Cup tie between the United States and Russia was thrown into turmoil Friday when spring thunderstorms swept through Atlanta, prompting postponement of the first two singles matches.

The Russians balked at making up for the lost day with three matches today, because their best player, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, is playing both singles and doubles. Also, there’s a chance the second Russian singles player, 18-year-old Marat Safin, might team up with Kafelnikov in doubles.

So, after nearly two hours of tortuous negotiations, the International Tennis Federation announced that the first two singles in the best-of-five series would begin today at 1 p.m. EST.

American Jim Courier meets Kafelnikov in the opener, followed by Safin against Andre Agassi, who is one away from tying Bill Tilden’s U.S. record of 16 consecutive Davis Cup singles victories.

The doubles will follow at 10 a.m. Sunday. The American team of Richey Reneberg and Todd Martin is scheduled to meet Kafelnikov and Andrei Olhovskiy, though Safin could be substituted up to an hour before the match.

“The Russians said they would be willing to consider playing the doubles Saturday night, but they couldn’t be definite,” ITF referee Alan Mills said.

Under the rules, the reverse singles could not begin before 2 p.m. Sunday, and the Russians would be allowed a maximum two-hour rest if the doubles match went less than 30 games. If the doubles takes more than 30 games, a strong possibility, the Russians could push the final two singles back to Monday.

Organizers of the event at Stone Mountain’s International Tennis Center, about 20 miles east of Atlanta and site of the 1996 Olympic competition, would like to see a definite schedule established sometime today to help with ticketing and notifying fans.

“Obviously, the American team has the advantage in all this,” Russian team captain Shamil Tarpichev said. “We have one player who’s involved in three matches. Their players are only involved in two matches.”

U.S. captain Tom Gullikson agreed that a condensed schedule could benefit his team by slowing Kafelnikov, a top 10 player in both singles and doubles. Davis Cup matches are best-of-five sets.

“He’s used to playing singles and doubles on the same day, but not five sets,” Gullikson said. “It probably gives us a little advantage.”

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Meanwhile, defending champion Sweden fell behind Slovakia, 2-0, in Bratislava as Dominik Hrbaty and Karol Kucera stunned the undermanned Swedes. Hrbaty beat Magnus Norman, 7-6 (7-5), 4-6, 6-4, 3-6, 6-2, and Karol Kucera defeated Mikael Tillstrom, 1-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-4.

Sweden was without three of its top players, and Norman has flu. Top singles player Jonas Bjorkman has strep throat, Thomas Enqvist has a sore elbow and doubles specialist Nicklas Kulti wanted to be with his wife, who just gave birth.