Doubles Woes Stir Thoughts of Bryan Twins

Of course, it’s easy to say now that U.S. Davis Cup captain Patrick McEnroe made a mistake by not picking twin brothers Bob and Mike Bryan to play doubles against Croatia.

The long-storied art of second-guessing is at its peak after Davis Cup adventures. It’s true even in the United States, though the Cup seems to have a rapidly diminishing profile.

McEnroe has made many more good decisions than bad, but this appears to have been a rare mistake. Croatia won, 4-1, in the first round of the Davis Cup at Zagreb. In Saturday’s critical doubles match, Mardy Fish and James Blake squandered a two-sets-to-love lead against a patched-together Goran Ivanisevic and Ivan Ljubicic, and the Croatians started firing the ball at an increasingly tight Fish in the third-set tiebreaker.

Blake, playing the No. 1 position for the first time, had already played eight sets before he faced Ljubicic on Sunday with the United States trailing, 2-1. The presence of the Bryans would have taken a sizable mental and physical load off Blake.

A few more statistics to consider: Although Blake and Fish won their Davis Cup doubles match against Slovakia last year, they had not played together on the tour since a first-round loss at Indian Wells last March. The Bryans won five titles in eight finals and reached the semifinals at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open last year.

True, the Bryans lost in the third round of the Australian Open, but the slower Rebound Ace court in Melbourne was nothing like the lightning-fast surface used in Zagreb.

Leaving the Bryans off would have been understandable if Andy Roddick had been ready to go. With Roddick not always 100%, it makes sense to have another quality singles player in reserve in case he comes up hurting after the first day. But Roddick’s injured wrist kept him home altogether.

Channel Surfing

The consistent flow of happy releases from the Tennis Channel had all but vanished as its target launch date grew closer. At the U.S. Open, officials announced a series of deals securing the rights of a few ATP and WTA tournaments, and they had hoped to start at this week’s men’s event in San Jose.

Instead, sooner will be later.

Frank Biondi, senior managing director of the Tennis Channel, said that the launch date could be as far off as late June or as early as mid-April. Naturally, it all comes down to capital.

“We’d love to do it [this week], but it’s always a function of money,” said Biondi, who was previously chairman and chief executive of Universal Studios and Viacom Inc.

“And money has been a difficult thing to come by these days. You’re coming out of probably the worst private equity money-raising environment, in the last two years, in the last 50 years.

“Secondly, there are not a lot of investors who are comfortable with the concept of digital cable networks. That comfort level has gone up quite dramatically in the past 12 to 15 months.”

Biondi said there was a lead investor, who does not want to be named yet, who has been involved since November. Talks are continuing with other investors, and he said he would probably know if the group is together later this week.

“[We’re] finishing up with three, maybe four institutions,” he said. “Any one could be good for 15 to 25 million each.”

Re-Pete

Bob Kain, IMG’s president and chief operating officer, had to laugh when he thought about his first official meeting with Pete Sampras.

“It was in a hospital,” Kain said.

Sampras was a teenager and had signed his first contract with IMG. They were all huddling at a hospital because Sampras’ coach at the time, Peter Fischer, was a doctor.

Now, about a decade and a half later, on the verge of retirement, Sampras has returned to IMG. Kain said his firm was well equipped to handle the transition from an active playing career to post-tennis business.

Sampras is scheduled to return to tournament play next month in Scottsdale, Ariz., but nothing is certain.

“I don’t think he even knows for sure,” Kain said. “It may be next week or it may be springtime.... He’s probably earned the right to pick and choose.”

Sweeping Up

Despite a direct conflict with another men’s event in Washington D.C., the local tournament at UCLA, which starts July 28, appears to have a decent field. Entered are Lleyton Hewitt of Australia, Tommy Haas of Germany, Gustavo Kuerten of Brazil and Sampras. Andre Agassi will play at Washington.

Contrary to widespread reports, Monica Seles is not being coached by former touring pro David Nainkin of South Africa, according to her agent. She hit with Nainkin once in December and may work with him again, but her hitting partner earlier this month in Tokyo and at this week’s tournament in Doha, Qatar, was Andreas Bubik.

If you thought you had a tough weekend playing tennis, consider the Davis Cup fortunes of the African nation Djibouti. The tiny country, which is slightly smaller than Massachusetts, borders Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia.

Djibouti participated in Group IV round-robin play at Lagos, Nigeria, and won only four games in three matches against Botswana. Things got even tougher against Togo. Djibouti failed to win a game. All the round-robin matches in this group were shortened from best of five sets to best of three. Good decision.