THE SCOOP: SUNDAY, MARCH 28

Coria believes he was treated unfairly by ATP,
make take action
'After what happened with Rusedski, I had enough anger and think my name was stained'
Is Safin-conqueror Spadea headed to Davis Cup duty?

By Sandra Harwitt
Special to tennisreporters.net

Susan Mullane/Camerawork USA

Coria wants justice in wake of 2001 nandrolone suspension.

FROM THE NASDAQ-100 OPEN IN MIAMI – Now that Greg Rusedski's name has been cleared in respect to doping charges, No. 4-ranked Guillermo Coria has told Latin American journalists here he is looking for a little justice to come his way as well.

Coria was suspended for seven months and fined big bucks back in 2001 when the presence of nandrolone was found in his system during a routine drug test. To get the facts straight, Coria argued that the vitamins he consumed came from a contaminated jar – a fact that is now agreed upon by the authorities. The difference in Coria's case, however, is that he did not receive his supplements directly from the ATP Tour trainers, which is the argument that both Rusedski and Bohdan Ulihrach recently successfully used.

On March 27, Argentine journalist Jorge Busico reported in the newspaper Clarin that Coria would like his good name restored. Coria reportedly told the paper, "I have everything recorded from all the case. After what happened with Rusedski, I had enough anger that I think my name was stained. Not only that, I had to complete the suspension and that was detrimental to me. I also had to give back $100,000 plus taxes and I think I was not treated with justice so that's why I'm starting to [think about] the possibility of doing something against the ATP. Now it shows up that the ATP admits the trainers were giving out contaminated substances but nobody believed me when I said so."

Is Safin-conqueror Spadea headed to Davis Cup duty?
The turn of events the last few weeks must be keeping US Davis Cup captain Patrick McEnroe tossing and turning all night long.

PMac is set to name his Davis Cup squad for the upcoming quarterfinal against Sweden on Monday and his decision cannot be looking all that crystal clear anymore. As the captain told tennisreporters.net only last week at Indian Wells, Mardy Fish was looking like a frontrunner for the second singles spot behind Andy Roddick.

But with how things have played out here at the NASDAQ, it's likely that he's reconsidering. Since last year, McEnroe has worked to assemble a good crew of young players – Roddick, Fish, Robby Ginepri, Taylor Dent, James Blake and Mike & Bob Bryan – with hopes they would bond as a team for now and in the future.

© Mark Lyons

Spadea's recent surge makes him a Davis Cup contender.

But with the April 9-11 Sweden tie looming, 29-year-old Vince Spadea has put a bit of a kink into the mix. Spadea, who lives in Boca Raton, which is just a 10-minute drive from the Delray Beach site of the Davis Cup stadium, is playing like a man possessed. He's confident, has just won his first ever career title at Scottsdale and has out-performed Fish, Ginepri, Dent and Blake over the past month.

As our esteemed British colleague John Barrett was quick to point out two days ago, the late great Australian Davis Cup captain Harry Hopman's theory was to go with the guy who's playing the best at the time of the competition. Hands down, that would be Spadea. While it is true that Ginepri is still in the NASDAQ and going to take on Nicolas Kiefer in the third round, his path to the third round has not been as impressive as Spadea's. Ginepri has posted win over Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo of Spain in the first round and Gaston Gaudio of Argentina in the second. However, since his winning Davis Cup efforts against Austria back in early February, Ginepri flamed out of San Jose, Memphis, Scottsdale and Indian Wells, results that may factor into McEnroe's decision.

In contrast, Spadea took out Blake in the first round and then upset recent Australian Open finalist Marat Safin in an amazing 7-6 (9-7), 6-7 (4-7), 6-4 effort in the second round.

As for Dent, he made the mistake of losing in the second round to Jonas Bjorkman, who is a definite for doubles action on the Swedish squad and a possible for singles duty as well.

And Fish, who is supposedly the frontrunner for the second singles slot, suffered an embarrassing opening match loss to French qualifier Julien Benneteau 6-4, 6-4.

Spadea has been playing it rather cool regarding the Davis Cup situation, expressing an interest in being named to the team the last couple of weeks, but trying not to be too "in-your-face" to McEnroe. In fact, after his win over Safin, Spadea said he hadn't even had a discussion with McEnroe regarding the possibility he might be named to the squad.

Spadea said he should seriously be in the mix, saying, "I feel like I deserve a chance, if it's not this tie, maybe I'll be ranked even higher for the next tie. Davis Cup time is coming up. That just puts my name more in the open to be chosen or just to see what the captain has in mind. But at least I know confidently that I'm doing my best for myself, and at the same time, if I was to represent my country, I would prove worthy with the results that I'm having right now."

Spadea holds a 1-0 career edge over Bjorkman, dating back to the now defunct '96 Atlanta tournament. Thomas Enqvist has a slight 3-2 advantage on Spadea in their career meetings, including beating the American twice this year – in the first round of both the Australian Open and Memphis tournament. However in the sole dead rubber match he played under then captain John McEnroe against Spain on dirt in 2000, Spadea was crushed.

Roddick, who will face Bjorkman in the third round here, admits he's glad he's not the Davis Cup captain having to make the decision as to who will play on the team.

"I don't want to be in Pat Mac's shoes right now," Roddick said. "There's so many factors to take into it. Vince has put up the best results, obviously, over the last month, month and a half. But that being said, he's never played a live rubber in a Davis Cup before. You have to take that into consideration. You have to take into consideration the guys who have and the match-ups. I mean, there's so much stuff that goes into it that it almost gets tiring to think about. So I'm glad I'm playing and glad I'm not the captain right now."

Given that young horses Robin Soderling and Joachim Johansson bombed out early at the NASDAQ – as did vets Enqvist and Thomas Johansson – Swedish captain Mats Wilander has some serious thinking to do, too.