Fed Cup Loses U.S.

Following the recent lead of other high-profile international teams, the U.S. Fed Cup tennis squad will not compete abroad, withdrawing from next month’s final in Madrid, Spain.

The U.S. Tennis Assn. cited “concerns over security surrounding the current international crisis.”

American players have slowly returned to the European circuit after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, but officials drew a distinction between individual appearances and those as a national team.

“It’s different when you are walking around with a flag on your back,” said Joe Favorito, the USTA’s director of publicity and media relations. “No American team has played outside of the United States since this has happened. At this stage, it wasn’t worth the risk.”

Last week, the U.S. women’s hockey team withdrew from the Four Nations Cup in Finland on Nov. 3-10 because of security issues and travel concerns. Previously, the NBA canceled exhibition games overseas and golf’s Ryder Cup, scheduled for England, was postponed until next year.

In tennis, the ATP’s world doubles championships, to have been held in Bangalore, India, next month, were canceled because of security concerns.

Many prominent golfers have not traveled overseas since the attacks, nor have tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams since the U.S. Open in New York.

The Williams sisters never committed to Fed Cup this year. Lindsay Davenport, who returned to the tour in Europe earlier this month, told the USTA she was not interested in playing in the final, in part because of the clay surface, and the No. 1-ranked player, Jennifer Capriati, did not seem inclined to participate, either.

“I was surprised about the decision, but I assume they are doing this for security reasons,” said Davenport, competing in Linz, Austria, this week. “It is a bit scary to go around the world representing the USA at the moment. It’s probably easier as an individual.”

Earlier, Monica Seles had made herself available for the final, and other possibilities were Lisa Raymond, Meghann Shaughnessy and Chanda Rubin.

Those considerations became moot Thursday.

The Americans were the two-time defending champions of the international women’s team competition, which will be held Nov. 7-11. Germany, Slovakia, Italy or Switzerland could replace the United States in the eight-team field that includes 2000 finalist Spain, Argentina, Australia, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France and Russia. No other teams have withdrawn.

“We regret that the USTA felt it necessary to withdraw their team from the upcoming Fed Cup World finals,” said International Tennis Federation President Francesco Ricci Bitti. “I am certain that the American team is very disappointed that they will not be able to represent their country, but, of course, we respect their concerns.”

The USTA had asked for extra security in its talks with the ITF and Spanish federation, but was mindful of the State Department’s world-wide caution to Americans traveling abroad regarding an increased risk of terrorist attacks.

Of particular concern, in Spain, are the activities of the Basque separatist organization, ETA, which has killed 12 people this year in its campaign for independence and detonated a bomb a couple of weeks ago in downtown Madrid. The car bomb injured at least 17 people.