He’s Trying to Rev Up Sampras for Indy

So, where was U.S. Davis Cup Captain Tom Gullikson recruiting-

scouting-cajoling last week?

Hovering over the clay courts in Hamburg, Germany? Searching for answers in Coral Springs, Fla.?

Try a practice court in Orlando, watching Pete Sampras and Jim Courier.

It was a wise move, because the Orlando area recently added its newest tennis-playing resident, Sampras. Sampras moved to Orlando from Tampa because his rehired trainer, Pat Etcheberry, lives there.

Courier, hero of the Davis Cup victory over Russia, already had moved to Orlando, seeking refuge from the swirling winds of Miami-Key Biscayne.

He is strongly committed to Davis Cup in 1998, as is Todd Martin, who with Richey Reneberg won his doubles match against Russia in the first round.

Sampras has said he would not play in the first two rounds. Gullikson, though, is trying to change his mind, though that seems highly unlikely. The quarterfinal round is scheduled July 17-19 against Belgium at Indianapolis.

“Well, we are just playing a little verbal volleyball right now,” Gullikson, the U.S. captain since 1994, said the other day. “[Sampras] is looking at his schedule a little bit, and we are actually going to go grab a little dinner tonight--Pete and I and Jim--and probably talk more about it there.

“I don’t think [Sampras] is really starting [his post-Wimbledon schedule] until L.A. [starting July 27]--that might be his first hard-court event this summer--unless he takes a wild card somewhere. So that would fit in pretty well with the Davis Cup.”

Gullikson also said he spoke with one of Andre Agassi’s representatives, who said Agassi wants to think about it a bit longer before deciding.

The No. 1 player for Belgium is Filip Dewulf, who reached the French Open semifinals in 1997, but the competition against the United States is on hard courts.

“We have had three Americans winning on the clay--Sampras, Courier and Martin--so I don’t know, maybe we picked the wrong surface,” Gullikson said, joking. “Maybe we are turning into clay-court players.”

The three clay-court titles by Americans in 1998 are the most since 1994--Martin at Barcelona, Courier at Orlando, and Sampras at Atlanta--and the most interesting aspect is none of them were won by Agassi or Michael Chang.

Agassi lost in a three-set final to Thomas Enqvist at Munich earlier this month, and Chang was a finalist in Orlando in April.

DOUBLE FAULT

One of the stranger communiques emerging from the USTA in recent times came over the fax machine on May 1:

“The United States Tennis Assn. has not selected a site for its quarterfinal Davis Cup by NEC tie against Belgium, July 17-19.

“USA Today reported in its Wednesday, April 29th, edition that Indianapolis had been selected as the site of the tie. This is false. Indianapolis is one of the cities being considered, but has not been selected.

“When a site is selected, the USTA will then make an announcement.”

And where will the competition against Belgium be held?

Indianapolis.

DOUBLE FAULT II

He hasn’t started muttering anything about guys in pulled-down hats yet, but lately Thomas Muster has started to sound an awful lot like a conspiracy theorist.

Muster knocked off third-seeded Yevgeny Kafelnikov in the second round of the German Open at Hamburg, then started taking shots at his off-court foes. He was angered by what he said was a suggestion on the ATP’s Internet site that he was preparing for retirement.

A search of the site did not reveal any such mention, but Muster could have been talking about an old story, in which an Austrian doctor suggested he should retire from tennis.

“I have a feeling they are trying to bury me alive,” said Muster, who is ranked 25th. “I see no reason to stop. I am still far away from that. If my body allows me, I will continue playing for another three or four years.

“I don’t feel like retiring and everyone around me is telling me to retire. Maybe you have to have a full head of hair!”

APPROACH SHOT

American Lindsay Davenport usually likes to play the week before a Grand Slam event, but she is slightly altering her French Open preparation this year.

Davenport left for Europe last week and will play this week in the German Open at Berlin. She plans on taking the week off before the French Open.

“I’m getting a later start on the red clay than the other players who are already over there in Rome,” Davenport said. “Red clay is pretty tough for me, pretty slow, pretty tough conditions. I’m going over there with an aggressive attitude and am really going to go for it, considering it is not my favorite surface.”

When Davenport reached the final at Indian Wells in March, she was moving well and showing increased fitness. Since then, the No. 2 player has accelerated her efforts.

“The last few weeks, I’ve played a lot less tennis and have been working out a lot harder,” she said. “I have gotten myself in the best shape that I’ve been in so far in my career. I feel a lot better about it. Hopefully, in those long clay-court matches, I’ll be able to last out there.”