THE SCOOP: FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4

Captain McEnroe to continue with young squad
Tennis mourns loss of Dallas, Swan

By Sandra Harwitt
tennisreporters.net

Susan Mullane Camerawork USA, Inc.

The American hopes of bringing home a Davis Cup victory in 2003 – a first Davis Cup victory since the US defeated Russia in the 1995 final – were seriously diminished on Thursday when the World Cup draw was announced for next year.

The way the draw worked out, the US is situated in the bottom half of the 16-country competition and absolutely every possible nation they would face through to the final would have the added advantage of playing at home.

Starting with a first round tie against Croatia, to be played in Croatia on February 7-9, 2003, the US will be on foreign soil. In order to bypass Croatia, who might or might not have '01 Wimbledon champion Goran Ivanisevic on board if his shoulder is fully healed from surgery, an American squad will definitely have to contend with the solidly capable Ivan Ljubicic and talented upstart Mario Ancic in front of what can be expected to be a very animated Croatian crowd.

If the US gets past Croatia, the April quarterfinal round would be against either Spain or Belgium and both those countries would have choice of ground. A possible US semifinal would be against Germany, Argentina, the Czech Republic or Russia, with all of those countries enjoying home court advantage.

YOUTH WILL MATURE ON TEAM
Word is out that US Davis Cup captain Patrick McEnroe is planning to field his 2003 squads with a young, enthusiastic, somewhat inexperienced group of players. While he utilized the services of Andy Roddick and James Blake for singles this year, he also had Grand Slam great Pete Sampras on tap for the first two rounds, before the recent US Open champ pulled a no-show for the semifinal against France a couple of weeks ago. Sampras has not played since his surprise win at the US Open and just yesterday pulled out of all the events he had on his fall calendar.

Susan Mullane Camerawork USA, Inc.

Apparently, McEnroe is going to give the nod to the young guns on the notion that these are the players that can compete in Davis Cup for years to come, possibly adding on Mardy Fish, Robby Ginepri and the excellent doubles duo known as the Bryan twins. While it is possible that the ever-loyal Todd Martin could be the only senior citizen in the 2003 mix, McEnroe is definitely looking to the future and putting the past in the past. Translation – McEnroe has indicated he will not be talking to either Sampras or Andre Agassi about participating in Davis Cup in 2003.

Of the American 2003 Davis Cup campaign, McEnroe said, "Obviously, if you look at the draw, assuming we win a few matches, we are looking at playing a lot of matches on the road. Our last match against France was an important one. It was the first match on the road for Andy [Roddick] and James [Blake] and, as I said in Paris, I think they learned some lessons and now we're going to find out pretty quickly how well they will respond. … Playing away is always tough. Nowadays in Davis Cup, there are so many great players and so many tough countries in Davis Cup."

The other 2003 first round parings are France against Romania in Romania, the Netherlands against Switzerland in the Netherlands, Australia against Great Britain in Australia, Sweden against Brazil in Sweden, Belgium against Spain in Spain, Germany against Argentina in Argentina, and the Czech Republic against Russia in the Czech Republic.

Tennis mourns loss of Dallas, Swan
In the past few weeks, the tennis world has lost two of its longtime media representatives:Heather Dallas and Herb Swan.

After a long career working as a public relations person in a variety of sporting events in Britain, including tennis, Dallas assumed the position of Wimbledon press officer a number of years ago and immediately became a favorite of the international media. Dallas, who resigned from her Wimbledon post only weeks before the Championships began this past June, succumbed to a long battle with cancer only days before the US Open began in late August.

The 47-year-old Swan, whose SWAN TV produced tennis programs as well as other sports programming, was also the broadcast director of the USTA. Swan died of a heart attack at his Alexandria, Va. home on Sept. 26.

The staff of tennisreporters.net mourns the loss of our two valued colleagues and sends our condolences to their families.