Captain Mac? Controversial, Yes, but Hardly Dull

The ideal Davis Cup scenario for the United States would have captain John McEnroe sitting in a courtside chair next to Andre Agassi for the final.

And it wouldn’t be in some downsized facility with a tacky-looking camouflage spread over empty seats.

While a fascinating prospect--and heaven knows it might actually increase fan and media interest, a truly revolutionary idea--there is an upside and downside to Captain Mac.

One plus:

If any player turned down McEnroe for Davis Cup service, he would have to listen to Mac talk and talk about it on USA Network, CBS or NBC or on one of those famous rambling conference calls. Or read about his refusal in McEnroe’s amusing tennis column in the Daily Telegraph in England.

One minus:

Mac is hardly mellowing, as evidenced in Dallas last weekend during a seniors match against Jimmy Connors. McEnroe and Connors, just like the old days, had a twin meltdown. If McEnroe can’t control his legendary temper--you cannot be serious--how can he be expected to control impressionable players?

Would he be an international incident waiting to happen, making Bob Knight’s Puerto Rico experience look tame?

It might be great theater. You have hockey fans who go to games simply to watch fights and there would be tennis types at Davis Cup looking for the first Mac attack.

McEnroe, though ambivalent in Dallas, has campaigned for the position in the past.

“I guess it would take a brave USTA president to take the plunge with me,” McEnroe wrote in the Daily Telegraph. “If they were really concerned about the Davis Cup they would have made me the captain, but they’ve always wanted to play it safe.”

That’s an understatement.

You get the sense that taking off a blazer on a hot day is a big step for some of these USTA folks.

USTA President Harry Marmion is winding down his term, and the person with the power, first vice president Julia (Judy) Levering--expected to be the next president--cannot speak about future plans because of USTA protocol and policy. The debacle in Milwaukee, a 4-1 semifinal loss to Italy, accelerated calls for the removal of U.S. captain Tom Gullikson in some quarters.

There are others besides McEnroe who could do the job. One person not mentioned often, former tour player Larry Stefanki, is an excellent coach and communicator, though who knows whether he would be interested in the headache.

Two pluses: He has coached McEnroe and Marcelo Rios.

AGASSI’S OKTOBERFEST

During the Milwaukee disaster, one prominent Italian journalist vowed he would ask the first question of Agassi the next time he saw him, promising to quiz him about his refusal to play Davis Cup against Italy.

That chance came last week in Munich at the Grand Slam Cup. Agassi, who skipped the Davis Cup semifinal because of his charity event in Las Vegas, was ready for the questions and was just as hard-hitting as he was in his 6-0, 6-0 victory over Cedric Pioline of France.

* On Gullikson:

“Listen, I think Tom Gullikson is a great guy,” he said. “I like Tom a lot. He’s made some decisions that have been difficult for me to understand. The guy that’s good that’s getting out of there is Harry Marmion. He was pathetic. I mean, you have to be pretty pathetic to take the best U.S. Davis Cup player and absolutely make him never want to play again.

“That’s Harry Marmion. M-a-r-m-i-o-n.”

” . . . I could have played out on the West Coast, no problem. Not to mention he [Marmion] was the only one to give me a veto here on the wild card. Out of everybody, he’s the only one that didn’t want me to play here. So I wish he saw that match out there today.”

* On his 1999 Davis Cup plans:

“You know, I don’t hold any relationship I have at the moment against the future,” he said. “I mean, once Harry Marmion is out, I’ll try to start new again with the new president. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t damage done. Tom Gullikson has made some difficult choices. But to be quite honest, it’s his position that is the problem, not the way he handles it. He doesn’t have the say-so. He can’t ask the team, ‘What do you want to do?’ Then go get it done. That comes from higher up.”

* On the sparse crowd for his match:

“There were more people here than Milwaukee,” he said.

EURO SHOWDOWNS

U.S. Open champion Lindsay Davenport, closing in on Martina Hingis, could become No. 1 after the event at Filderstadt, Germany, which starts today.

Davenport and Hingis both faltered at the Grand Slam Cup, a tournament with no bearing on the rankings.

Hingis, who retired because of cramps in the third set of her semifinal match against Patty Schnyder, was asked about Davenport’s charge.

“Well, she didn’t look that great at this tournament either,” Hingis said.

Another intriguing match could come this week at Basel, Switzerland. Pete Sampras accepted a late wild-card entry. Also entered is U.S. Open champion Patrick Rafter. It’s a good guess that Sampras hasn’t forgotten that Rafter recently called him a crybaby.

Sampras and Rafter are both scheduled to play in Basel, Lyon, France, Stuttgart and Paris the next five weeks. Rafter, aiming for the No. 1 spot, has never won an indoor title on tour.