Palmer, O’Brien Selected for U.S. Davis Cup Doubles

The two best doubles players in the world happen to be Americans. And, yes, they play together regularly.

For U.S. Davis Cup captain John McEnroe, it all seemed so logical. That’s why he went against the recent American trend and Tuesday selected the doubles team of Jared Palmer and Alex O’Brien to play against the Czech Republic, April 7-9, at the Great Western Forum in the Davis Cup quarterfinals.

The United States has put forth patchwork doubles teams of late, and success has been fleeting. It has won the doubles point in only one of its last four Davis Cup matches, against Australia in the quarterfinals in 1999.

“Jared and Alex have demonstrated that they are the top American doubles team and deserve to represent the United States in this tie,” McEnroe said.

“They are also fresh off a recent convincing win at the Australian Open over Jiri Novak and David Rikl, who we are expecting to play doubles for the Czechs.”

Palmer and O’Brien reached the semifinals of the Australian Open after defeating Novak and Rikl in the quarterfinals, 6-1, 6-3, and also won the Tennis Masters Series title at Indian Wells earlier this month.

They join Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi, who were selected by McEnroe last month.

Palmer became the top doubles player in the world after his Indian Wells performance. This year, he also won the doubles title at Scottsdale, Ariz., with Richey Reneberg. His last Davis Cup appearance was in 1995. He is 3-2 in Davis Cup play, 2-2 in doubles.

O’Brien, the No. 2 doubles player in the world, won the U.S. Open and ATP World Championships with Sebastien Lareau of Canada in 1999. Also, he and Sampras won the Davis Cup doubles match against the Australians last year in the quarterfinals.

Tuesday, the Czech Republic made one lineup adjustment, replacing Daniel Vacek with Martin Damm. Damm has won 15 ATP doubles titles. The other Czech team members are Novak, Rikl and Slava Dosedel.