Sampras to Join U.S. Team for Remainder of Davis Cup Campaign

Pete Sampras tried not to watch, but he saw it Sunday. He saw Andre Agassi in tears holding up the French Open trophy and making history as one of only five men to win all four Grand Slam tennis tournaments in a career.

So when Sampras announced Wednesday that he will join the U.S. Davis Cup team for its quarterfinal matches against Australia July 16-18 and also for the rest of the year if the U.S. wins, one was left to wonder--coincidence?

Or a case of a 27-year-old tennis player who has owned the spotlight and isn’t ready to give it up? Either way, Sampras was welcomed by Jim Courier and Todd Martin, Davis Cup mainstays in the absence of Sampras and Agassi the last two years.

Sampras, who has a chance to regain the No. 1 ranking this week, said from London where he is playing in a Wimbledon warmup that watching Courier and Martin win a dramatic five-match tie against Great Britain in the first round “definitely got me motivated to play some more Davis Cup.”

For the last two years, Sampras has chosen to skip Davis Cup, saying his commitment was to winning majors (he has 11, one short of Roy Emerson’s 12) and finishing the year ranked No. 1. After an exhausting push to finish 1998 at No. 1, a record-setting sixth straight year on top, Sampras skipped the Australian Open in January, missed much of the clay-court season because of injuries and then lost in the second round of the French Open, the one major that Sampras hasn’t won.

Meanwhile Courier and Martin, former top-10 players who have struggled in the rankings lately, have been reliable Davis Cup players for Coach Tom Gullikson. Courier beat Greg Rusedski in five sets to clinch the 3-2 win over Great Britain in hostile Birmingham, England, in April.

Sampras said three times Wednesday that he had no intention of taking away the singles spots from Courier or Martin and that he would happily play doubles.

“Jim and Todd made the commitment to go over to England and I didn’t. I just decided I’m going to play doubles and I’m glad to be part of the team. I’m very sensitive to jumping on the bandwagon. The reason we’re playing this tie is because of Todd and Jim,” Sampras said.

When Gullikson was asked, hypothetically, what would happen should this quarterfinal come down to a fifth match and Patrick Rafter were ready for Australia, would he really keep Sampras, one of the best players in history, on the bench?

“Once you get on a team,” Gullikson said, “there is some flexibility in the selection of who plays what, where. A lot can happen between now and July 16.”

Martin said, “I would have no qualms about being substituted.”

Sampras has a 16-7 Davis Cup record (13-6 in singles) and last played in the 1997 finals, a disastrous experience in which the U.S. lost to Sweden, 5-0, and Sampras injured his leg. The U.S. has the same record, 9-3, when Sampras has played for the team and when he has not since 1991 when Sampras made his Davis Cup debut.

Rafter and Mark Philippoussis are expected to play singles for Australia. Gullikson expects to announce a fourth member of the team, probably a doubles specialist such as Alex O’Brien or Richey Reneberg, in the next couple of weeks.