Stripped of Stars

It wasn’t quite a team mutiny on the Magdalena Peninsula. No one turned to the American captain and told him, dramatically, that he couldn’t handle the truth.

Rather, the words that 41-year-old John McEnroe didn’t hear from his players at a team meeting Wednesday helped him make up his mind not to play doubles against Spain in the Davis Cup semifinal, which starts here today.

“It wasn’t like during the meeting, they said, ‘Hey, you’ve gotta. I really believe this is the best play,’ ” McEnroe said.

And so, without a dramatic McEnroe story line, these three days at the Real Sociedad de Tenis de la Magdalena will be a glimpse into the future, a preview of American tennis without Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi. Sampras is injured again, as is Agassi after a minor car accident.

Jim Courier retired and Michael Chang has been conducting a Christian tennis camp this week in Southern California.

So, who is left among the reinforcements?

Todd Martin, 30, a U.S. Open finalist in 1999 but injury-riddled this year, will open against Albert Costa in the first singles match, followed by Jan-Michael Gambill against Alex Corretja. Tentatively scheduled to play doubles Saturday are the slumping Chris Woodruff and the owner of the longest losing streak on the tour, Vince Spadea, versus Juan Balcells and Corretja.

“[It] appeared to be easy, basically making sure Pete and Andre played and Todd was six or seven in the world, when I was announced as captain,” McEnroe said Wednesday. “Todd got to the [U.S. Open] finals, and all of a sudden it was like, ‘How the hell can we possibly lose? We’re going to win for years.’ ”

McEnroe looked irritated and impatiently tapped his foot.

“To say I’m disappointed is an understatement,” he said.

Thursday, after the draw at the Palacio de Magdalena, he looked downcast. Even with Sampras and Agassi, this semifinal would have been a formidable test. Without them, well, one official at the draw made the mistake of saying this would feature “two very exciting days of tennis.” Spain wrapping it up in two days? Well, quite possibly.

The success of Agassi and Sampras, who have won five Grand Slam singles titles between them in 1999 and 2000, has been like a masking agent for American tennis, concealing a major lack of depth. Agassi is 30 and Sampras turns 29 in August.

“It’s a little on the thin side,” said Sampras, who has won a record 13 Grand Slam singles titles. “What we had in the United States, what we have is very unique, very special. After us, it’s a little thin. Knowing the American media, unless you have the No. 1 or No. 2 or winning Grand Slams, you’re not good.

“I don’t think we have anyone today--no disrespect to those guys--to be considered in that league.”

Chang, who said Wednesday he has not ruled out playing Davis Cup in the future, agreed with Sampras.

“For so many years, U.S. tennis has had the most players in the top 100, and now there are less and less,” Chang said. “Hopefully as the years go on, there will come a time where someone will break through. For now, we’re patiently waiting for that to happen.”

The middle generation of Spadea, 25, and Woodruff, 27, has stalled. Until Wimbledon, so had 23-year-old Jan-Michael Gambill, who reached the quarterfinals. The future Chang speaks about is still out there, possibly, in youngsters Taylor Dent, Mardy Fish, Andy Roddick and the 22-year-old twins, Bob and Mike Bryan.

Then again, Lleyton Hewitt of Australia is only 19 and Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain, who came close to reaching the French Open final in his first attempt, is only 20. (Inexplicably, Ferrero was passed over by Spanish captain Javier Duarte but could still end up playing Sunday).

It also said something about the current state of American tennis--minus Sampras and Agassi--that McEnroe’s brief inclusion on the Davis Cup team caused such a stir. McEnroe was surprised at the attention when he was in Los Angeles last week before he played a senior event in San Diego.

“I put myself on the team, then all of a sudden, it’s McEnroe is playing!” he said. “In one way, it was exciting. This whole week, it was like, ‘Good luck, John, in Davis Cup. I think it’s great you’re playing.’ I’m like, ‘I am?’

“What’s going on here? All for a doubles match?”

For a few days, the hot new guy on the team was a 41-year-old with a sore left arm and a big blister on his left hand. But his second serve was lousy and the players weren’t clamoring for his return.

“I was sort of arm-wrestled into it by these guys. You know, I wanted to play but these guys talked me out of it,” McEnroe said at the draw.

Gambill, smiling: “We beat him up a little bit.”

McEnroe: “They told me if I played, they might desert me. They wanted a chance at glory, so now they might have to step up. I have to wait until the finals, I guess.”

Martin was the diplomat on the dais, but Woodruff had some fun teasing McEnroe:

“I’ve been having a heyday with his second serve in practice. I figure if I can return his second serve with relative ease . . .

McEnroe: “Don’t pay any attention to him.”

Martin made it quite clear at Wimbledon that the role of McEnroe should be limited to coach and he didn’t back off.

“The fact that John is not head and shoulders above any of us in his caliber of doubles play right now, his knowledge of the game is better,” he said. “To have him on the sideline looking at us, telling us what we’re doing right, wrong or could be doing differently during the changeovers, I think will help the doubles team quite a bit.”

Still, McEnroe’s Davis Cup return, in doubles, could have been a major public relations boost for the sport.

“That’s not right. It’s become too much about my game. I’ve supported it [Davis Cup] for years,” he said. “I’ve played. It cost me majors. I said I wanted to be captain. I’ve tried to get these guys to do it. Now I’ve got to step out on the court, win or lose, just so we get a 1.1 [TV rating] instead of a .9. Let’s not push it.

“To beat Balcells and Corretja is not, to me, like the greatest win of all time. There’s a part of me that wanted to do it. I feel a little awkward picking myself.”

The real reason? McEnroe said, joking: “All right, I’m scared. I’ve gotten soft in my old age.”

*

DAVIS CUP

UNITED STATES

vs. SPAIN

Santander,

Spain

Today through

Sunday