Agassi Has Had It With Davis Cup

One of the most successful players in U.S. Davis Cup history has terminated his long association with the international team competition.

Defending champion Andre Agassi won his first-round match today at the Australian Open, beating Jiri Vanek of the Czech Republic, 6-0, 7-5, 6-3, and announced afterward he would not play against Switzerland next month in Basel.

Moreover, Agassi believes he may never play Davis Cup again.

“I don’t have it in me anymore,” he said. “I just don’t.”

Once before, Agassi declared he was through with Davis Cup, but that was over a personal situation involving his close friend, team physician George Fareed, a couple of years ago. Once Fareed returned to the team, Agassi followed.

This time, the considerations are different.

“The format of Davis Cup is really not something that over the years has proven to me as a high likelihood of changing,” he said. “Every year, I hear if I just commit and we win, it gives us a better position to change the format. My participation isn’t going to have any influence on that anymore.”

At 30, Agassi said he just doesn’t have it in him. “I’m not the kind of guy to just call out a problem without feeling there is a solution to it,” he said. “But a lot of people need to get together to make it happen, and I’m a little skeptical if that’s going to happen. It’s just not in the cards for me.”

He is the second major American player to pull himself from Davis Cup consideration in the last two months, joining Pete Sampras, who also cited the difficult format. These recent developments increase the difficulties for new Davis Cup captain Patrick McEnroe, who will make his debut in Switzerland.

Without Sampras and Agassi, the United States traveled to Spain in July and lost, 5-0, on clay at Santander in the semifinals. Upset by the situation, then-captain John McEnroe stepped down from the position months later.

Maybe he knew something was up with Sampras and Agassi. Barring an unforeseen development, the final Davis Cup appearance by Agassi and Sampras may have been the 3-2 victory against the Czech Republic in April at Los Angeles.

Agassi has felt this way for quite some time but declined to speak out until he informed Patrick McEnroe of his decision. The Davis Cup format is set until 2003.

“I certainly don’t like the chances of me being a part of it for those three years, and if they still want me, three years from now--that’s going to speak greatly how good I still am or how tough of a situation American tennis finds itself in,” Agassi said.

Last year, Agassi was committed enough to fly to Harare, Zimbabwe, the day after winning the Australian Open. He won his two singles matches in Zimbabwe and threw up on the court and never seemed to regain his equilibrium until the end of the season.

His decision to skip Davis Cup was the biggest development in the opening hours of the first Grand Slam of 2001.

Second-seeded Marat Safin of Russia survived a second-set lapse and a code-violation warning for abuse of racket to prevail against Galo Blanco of Spain, 6-4, 1-6, 6-4, 7-6 (5), in 2 hours 47 minutes.

The new Safin is light-years away from the old Safin, who was fined $2,000 for not trying in his first-round straight-set loss to Grant Stafford here last year.

“You expect to win the first match, even playing bad or playing good,” he said. “The most important thing is to win. You go to the court already, you are a little bit scared. Everybody is like this. I knew I had to play very good against Galo because he is a very tough player. He beat Patrick Rafter in the first round of the U.S. Open.”

Safin withdrew from a local exhibition last week because of a sore elbow. He was emphatic about his current fitness, however.

“If you don’t give everything, don’t come here,” he said. “If I get broken, I quit. I’m not going to cry on the court [about] my elbow. I am there. I will serve 100%. If I can serve, I will serve. If I cannot serve, I say, ‘Thank you very much. I am leaving.’ ”