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EXCLUSIVE:
PAT MAC SAYS HE’LL ASK BIG NAMES JUST
ONCE TO PLAY DAVIS CUP
Johnny
Mac to Pete and Andre: Play for the flag
By
Matthew Cronin
tennisreporters.net
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Fred
Mullane/Susan Mullane
Camerawork USA, Inc.
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Should
U.S. Davis Cup captain Patrick McEnroe ask Pete Sampras and Andre
Agassi to reconsider their decision never to play Davis Cup again?
According to his brother, former Davis Cup captain John McEnroe,
that decision is Patrick's and Patrick's alone. But Johnny Mac
thinks that with the 9-11 World
Trade Center Tragedy, maybe Sampras and Agassi should rethink
their position.
"The
answer to me is you should always have your best players that
want to play to give you the best chance of winning," John
McEnroe told tennisreporters.net
.
"Given the set of extraordinarily horrific circumstances,
you would think that Davis Cup would mean more now. Hopefully
it will to anybody. … We have to show character and togetherness.
This is a little way. You're representing your country, there's
pride in that."
Johnny
Mac, who resigned after one year as captain in 2000 after he was
unable to get the injured Sampras and Agassi to play in a semifinal
loss in Spain, said he wouldn't advise Patrick what to do unless
his younger brother asks him.
"I
jumped the Titanic," Johnny Mac said about resigning. "I
wish Patrick the best. His temperament is better suited to doing
what he thinks it right."
It
already appears that Pat Mac has decided to go with his young
guns when
the U.S faces Slovakia at home in February. While Andy Roddick
has certainly
proved himself against elite competition, James Blake's two singles
victories
over marginal singles players from India last weekend are no guarantee
that
he can fell the likes of Slovakians Karol Kucera and Dominik Hrbaty.
"I
didn't expect we'd have too much of a problem against India, Johnny
Mac
said. "That would have been a truly remarkable underachieving
effort if we
had lost that. … Patrick has chance to wait to pick his team,
when it becomes
more clear. Before I resigned, I was going to go strictly with
young guys. If
your best guys aren't willing to play, you gotta start thinking
of your next
option."
SERIOUS
PLAYERS FOR SERIOUS COMPETITION
If
the U.S is to overcome the likes of Slovakia and then possibly
the
stronger, deeper nation of Spain, Pat Mac must seriously consider
talking to
Agassi and Sampras. But at this point, he's refusing to consider
allowing
them to play just a couple ties.
"If
Pete or Andre become interested in playing Davis Cup again, I'm
certainly
going to listen," Pat McEnroe said. "Of course, I'll
ask them and I'll have a
discussion with them if they are interested. I'm not expecting
that they will
be and I'm not holding my breath that they will be.
"I
think that we have a good thing going with the young guys. If
they
decide they want to be part of what we are trying to build here
for the
future, great. These are two of the greats of all time. So, I
would be an
idiot not to listen to them if they express interest in playing,
for all they
have done for American tennis. But I certainly am not holding
out. I'm
going to probably have one conversation with both of them about
[Slovakia] and
that's going to be the end of it" Pat Mac explained.
"I'm
excited about what I saw in [the victory over India]. …I
want the players that want to be there, okay. I don't expect that
some players are going to say to me, "I want to play just
the first match and not the second." Because to me, they
are essentially saying they don't want to be there and if they
don't want to be there, then I don't want them there. I don't
think the team wants them there. I don't
think the country wants to see them out there, guys that feel
like they are
going it because they have to. I'm not looking at just winning
one or two
rounds next year. I'm looking at building something for the next
five years
and having Davis Cup really mean something to these guys on the
team and not
feel like they have to do it."
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