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Sampras will only play doubles in Davis tie

Despite speculation that the United States Davis Cup team would convince Pete Sampras to play singles in this weekend's quarter-final tie against Australia, the recent Wimbledon champion will just play doubles.

"I will say it again, that for the past couple of months after what happened in England (the United States beat Britain 3-2 in that first round tie without Sampras) I was planning on playing doubles and I wasn't lying," Sampras said. "I wasn't trying to pull your leg and say I was going to play doubles and come here and play singles. So I don't understand the surprise."

Sampras is scheduled to team with Alex O'Brien against a make-shift Australian duo of Sandon Stolle and Mark Woodforde in Saturday's doubles match. This is Sampras's first Davis Cup appearance since he injured his thigh in the December 1997 final, played in Sweden.

US team captain Tom Gullikson said on Thursday at the historic Longwood Cricket Club, site of the first Davis Cup competition between the United States and Britain 100 years ago, Sampras had insisted on playing doubles.

"Pete called me and said he would like to make himself available for the team, but he'd only like to play doubles. He strongly felt that Jim (Courier) and Todd (Martin) deserve the singles spots, not only for what they did against Great Britain, but the commitment they have shown over the past several years to Davis Cup."

Sampras said, "After what happened in England, I just didn't feel comfortable jumping on the bandwagon and carrying the flag here. It is Todd's show and Jim's show.

"I don't think it was right for me to come here and play singles."

Sampras is scheduled to team with Alex O'Brien against Sandon Stolle and Mark Woodforde in Saturday's doubles match and Courier and Martin will play the singles. The No. 10 ranked Martin opens the tie against Davis Cup neophyte and No. 31 ranked Lleyton Hewitt, followed by the No. 41 ranked Courier against the No. 2 ranked Patrick Rafter.

Sunday"s reverse singles starts with Martin and Rafter, and concludes with Courier and Hewitt.

While Gullikson is saying the US team he's sending out is a winning combination, it would be difficult to deny that not playing Sampras in singles diminishes the Americans' odds of moving into the semi-finals against either Russia or the Slovak Republic this coming September.

If the US does get through this quarter-final meeting, Sampras said he'd be ready to play singles in the semi-finals.

With this the 100th anniversary of the Davis Cup competition, the US and Australia tie is being contested at the Longwood Cricket Club, the site of the very first Davis Cup tie in 1900.

While Courier's current ranking is only 41, he's always been a strong Davis Cup competitor and was the player who won the decisive fifth match in the first-round tie against Britain in the first round.

"Some people like to have the ball at the end of the game and some people don't," Courier said of the possibility of playing the deciding match of the tie.

"I like to have the ball at the end of the game. At least I am in control one way or the other.

"I enjoy being out there when the stakes are high. I have been playing the game a long time and it is a lot more exciting to play a match like that than a first-round match at a normal tournament."

Rafter is expecting Courier to be the strong suit of the American squad.

"One thing about Jim is he puts in 100 percent every single match he plays," Rafter said.

"Some guys deal with the pressure of Davis Cup consistently very well and Jim is one of those sort of guys. He loves the whole thing of Davis Cup, what it is, and he is someone who has been able to handle that better than anyone else."

This quarter-final tie is the 45th Davis Cup meeting between the United States and Australia with the Americans leading the series 25-19. Overall, the US, with 31 vicitories, has won more Davis Cups than any other country. The Australians are in second place with 26.

UNI