This Year Rusedski Enjoys a New Role

He drew strong reviews from his teammates and his captain, mentoring the youngsters and providing encouragement during the Davis Cup buildup.

If you were thinking Andre Agassi, well, you would not be wrong.

But another thirty-something guy also seized the Davis Cup leadership role, and unlike Agassi and the favored U.S. team, walked away with a victory. Greg Rusedski won his two singles matches leading Great Britain, 3-2, past Israel at Tel Aviv in an Euro-African zonal round.

Not many thought these words would ever be written: Tim Who?

Tim Henman’s retirement from Davis Cup created an opportunity, and Rusedski, 31, ably stepped into the breach, filling the leadership role for Generation Next.

“I really enjoyed it,” said a jet-lagged Rusedski, who still managed a 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 first-round win Friday over qualifier Jeff Salzenstein in the Pacific Life Open at Indian Wells Tennis Garden. “It was probably one of my best moments playing Davis Cup because it was helping the young generation come through.”

Rusedski said that, before playing Israel, he had thought that doubles would be Britain’s “least likely” chance, so he was particularly impressed by the way 18-year-old Andrew Murray and David Sherwood rose to the challenge against Israel’s Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram.

“It was a great surprise and a great effort when they went out there and believed in themselves and beat one of the [doubles] teams that was ranked top five in the world,” Rusedski said.

Indian Wells represents something of a marker in Rusedski’s life. During this tournament last year, he was exonerated of drug charges, cleared of deliberately taking the banned substance nandrolone. He received the news when he was on vacation in Egypt.

Reputation, restored.

But it took longer to restore his ranking. Rusedski was ranked 163rd at the start of Wimbledon in June. With little assistance, as in the form of wild cards, Rusedski worked his way back into the top 50, and climbed to No. 44, as of Monday.

“It would have been nice to have them, but I always seem to get the tough draws, no wild cards, and life makes it more interesting for me,” Rusedski said. “But it’s a challenge. Either stand up and you go for it or you let those things get you down....

“I don’t know what it says about me. It just says I stick with things and I give a 100%. If it works out, great. But I’m never going to give up on what I’m doing.”

Experiences such as the ones in Tel Aviv go a long way. His Davis Cup role, albeit a new one, was a good fit for the Canadian-born Rusedski. Mr. Outside needed years before acceptance took hold in Great Britain.

“I enjoy helping the younger players, giving back to them,” Rusedski said. “Looking forward to the future. When I give up this game in a few years, I can sit at Wimbledon and watch them do really well. Hopefully, I can inspire them to continue to play like that.”

The plan had been for Agassi to do the same, leading the youngsters to victory. Although the United States lost, he came up big behind the scenes during the three days of competition against Croatia. Twins Bob and Mike Bryan, downcast over losing their first Davis Cup match, returned to the hotel and heard a knock at the door.

It was Agassi. Agassi invited them out to dinner, according to the twins’ father, Wayne Bryan, and told them story after story about the big matches he has lost in his career.

“You’ve seen a lot of shocking things happen through the years in Davis Cup,” Agassi said Friday. “I think it’s the result of inspiration on some players’ sides and nerves on other players’ sides. In this case, I think it was clear that [Ivan] Ljubicic outplayed us both and even raised his level quite significantly in the doubles.

“It wasn’t like the boys played bad at all. They played a quality match and were outplayed. It’s not easy to say you should have won after seeing that happen.”

Agassi was in the wings during the Andy Roddick-Ljubicic five-set thriller -- waiting to see if he would need to play a decisive match against Mario Ancic. As it turned out, he was not needed.

“I committed to not watching most of it, and I don’t think I missed a point,” he said, smiling. “Four hours of sort of nail-biting tennis, it’s draining.”

The challenges are around every corner these days. Agassi will play his opener here against qualifier Wayne Arthurs of Australia tonight. Arthurs is not the ordinary qualifier. He defeated Potito Starace of Italy, 6-4, 6-3, in the first round and extended his streak of holding serve to 108 consecutive games.

In another first-round match, qualifier Arnaud Clement of France defeated wild card Donald Young, 6-3, 6-2, in 62 minutes. The 15-year-old Young, winner of the Australian Open junior title in January, has won 13 games in six sets in three pro tournaments.

Two qualifiers accounted for mild upsets on the women’s side. Maria Kirilenko of Russia beat eighth-seeded Elena Bovina of Russia, 6-3, 6-1, and Rika Fujiwara of Japan defeated ninth-seeded Francesca Schiavone of Italy, 6-3, 7-6 (5).

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An ATP all-star exhibition, with Roger Federer as host, raised $18,282.76 as buckets were passed through the crowd Friday night to benefit UNICEF’s effort for tsunami relief.

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Featured Matches

Today at the Pacific Life Open at Indian Wells Tennis Garden:

STADIUM COURT, starting at 10 a.m.

* Jan-Michael Gambill vs. Mardy Fish.

* Maria Sharapova (Russia) vs. Angela Haynes.

* Lindsay Davenport vs. Sesil Karatantcheva (Bulgaria).

* Fernando Verdasco (Spain) vs. Andy Roddick

Not before 6:30 p.m.

* Wayne Arthurs (Australia) vs. Andre Agassi.

* Anne Kremer (Luxembourg) vs. Daniela Hantuchova (Slovakia).