McEnroe Still Finds a Way to Keep Things Interesting
While some of his non-tennis friends were happy for him--pleased that John McEnroe had a new coaching gig, now that he had put down the guitar--they did have a question.
“ ‘What’s Davis Cup?’ ” McEnroe recalled.
That was answered after one long weekend in Zimbabwe, earlier this month in an electric confrontation at Harare. McEnroe, in his debut as U.S. captain, managed to turn a who-cares first-round match against Zimbabwe into top-of-the-page news.
And he got someone else to care, against long odds: Pete Sampras.
A most impressive result, although the method has been criticized. Sampras felt McEnroe questioned his integrity, regarding his hip injury, and was put off further when a giddy McEnroe said he was thinking about keeping the winning team intact.
Naturally, McEnroe was not going to say otherwise in the aftermath of Chris Woodruff’s clinching victory over Wayne Black, not with Woodruff sitting right next to him in the interview room. Thanks, Chris, you are dismissed now.
An unhappy Sampras responded, and said he wanted to play against the Czech Republic in the quarterfinals at the Great Western Forum on April 7-9. Which is precisely what McEnroe wanted all along. He just got there in his own winding way. Furthermore, the two are said to have finally spoken after the back-and-forth shots in the media.
What else would you expect?
McEnroe and Sampras have had something of an up-and-down relationship for years. Long before McEnroe was named captain, he had been after Sampras for not playing Davis Cup more often. He has criticized Sampras, and Sampras has not backed down.
This isn’t to say McEnroe has always made sense. He did get a little out there--actually, really out there--when he launched into another conspiracy theory last week.
That one was even stranger than his theory about chair umpire Wayne McKewen holding a grudge against him from his playing days, and taking it out on Woodruff in Zimbabwe.
Anyway, McEnroe had wanted Sampras to fly to Harare.
“Perhaps I was hoping for too much, that he’d come to Zimbabwe and support the team,” he said. “Maybe my feeling is, I try to have high hopes for what this team can be.”
That was fine. But then . . .
“Australia is one of our competitors,” McEnroe said. “I’m not saying the Australian doctors aren’t telling the truth, but my natural tendency is to want to feel like it’s coming from our team. Simple as that. My mistake was that I took it maybe too personally or too hard.”
Yeah, the Aussie doctors in Melbourne at the Open had direct orders from John Newcombe, to tell Sampras that, yes, he really was hurt, and, hmm, let’s play around with this MRI a bit.
Sampras had to see the humor here.
McEnroe did admit that Sampras’ injury--which occurred in the Australian Open semifinals against Andre Agassi--hit him by surprise.
“I was taken aback,” he said. “I didn’t want to believe that Pete was hurt. That he wasn’t playing at first. I wanted to sort of pretend like it didn’t happen. I went frozen for a period of time.”
It isn’t much of a reach to figure that Sampras will play against the Czech Republic. Presumably, McEnroe wants a commitment for the entire season, not just the quarterfinals. But Sampras was ready to play before the injury, and in all fairness, it makes sense he shouldn’t lose his spot because he was injured.
None of this would be an issue had Woodruff lost to Wayne Black. There hardly would be an aura of excitement about a relegation round.
“Saturday night, I felt like I may have the shortest tenure in Davis Cup history,” McEnroe said after the U.S. lost the doubles match to fall behind 2-1.
“It was quite a taxing experience for me. It took more out of me than I thought it would. It’s something tennis needs, [it] is very special. I think people saw that. So many people in New York [have said] since I’ve been back, ‘Now that’s exciting. That really is exciting.’ That’s exactly what I think the sport needs.”
CUP NOTES
Davis Cup tickets go on sale today and can be ordered through Ticketmaster at (213) 480-3232, (714) 740-2000 or online at www.ticketmaster.com. Capacity is expected to be about 13,000, but officials said it could be increased on the weekend of the match, if there is a demand for seats.
The two singles matches are Friday, followed by the doubles Saturday, and the reverse singles Sunday.
There have been numerous Davis Cup matches held in Southern California in the ‘80s and ‘90s--the last one was at Newport Beach in 1997 against the Netherlands. But you have to go back quite a bit to find the last time there was a Davis Cup match in Los Angeles.
It was in 1963.
The United States defeated Mexico, 4-1, at the Los Angeles Tennis Club in the second round. Playing for the United States were Chuck McKinley and Dennis Ralston. The captain was Robert Kelleher, now a federal judge in Los Angeles who will be inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in July.
The United States won its first-round match against a non-traditional tennis opponent that year. It defeated Iran, 5-0, at the Imperial Tennis Club in Tehran.
ADD SAMPRAS
The first Pete Sampras Classic, an invitation-only celebrity golf tournament and dinner, will be held March 6 at the North Ranch Country Club in Westlake Village.
It benefits the Tim & Tom Gullikson Foundation. For exclusive sponsorships information, call (310) 459-9332, or for golf sponsorships, (310) 860-8224.
