Davis Cup Journal: Day 2 
It's a Dog Fight as Novak Stuns Sampras, Agassi Wins

by John Yandell

"That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you guys. One of the reasons Davis Cup is so great is that weird things happen.”  

That’s John McEnroe describing to reporters the state of events at the end of the first day of singles versus the Czechs. In case you didn’t hear, Pete Sampras lost in straight sets to Juri Novak in the first match, creating a “shocking situation” according to McEnroe.  Luckily for the US, Agassi crushed the number 2 Czech player Slava Dosedel in the second match, also in straight sets. 

Some of the writers were locked in heated debates: did Pete really try?  Did he choke?  In the interview room, one thing is certain, he is pretty bummed. He expected to win. It may not have been his highest energy performance - that’s for sure - but Pete is so damn laconic on the court, maybe people misread him. And Novak is good. He beat Coretja last week in Miami. In fact, he took Pete to 5 sets at the Open the only time they played before. Today, he stayed back and hardly missed. He came up with more and more big passing shots as the match went on. Pete missed a lot of backhands. He kept serving Novak’s forehand in the deuce court, and Novak hurt him with some big returns at key times. 

Sampras had 14 break points, including 5 or 6 in the first two games, but didn’t convert any of them. There were a couple of close calls that went Novak’s way. Then Pete got behind fast in the first set tie-breaker, and lost it badly. Pete had a chance to break early in the second set, but when that didn’t happen, it was like a downward spiral.

“It wasn’t like he didn’t want to win, it wasn’t like he didn’t try,” McEnroe said. “But by the end’ the energy on the court was pretty down.” 

In the interview room, Pete is amazingly candid. You have to give him credit.  He’s very direct and matter of fact even when he knows people are targeting him as the potential goat. Personally I think he gives awesome interviews, and they are pretty revealing: 

‘The other guy played great. He had nothing to lose. He was in the zone. I wasn’t. But you have to find a way to come through when you’re not playing great. Sometimes you struggle, you get 10 break points and can’t break, but eventually you convert two. A break point for me is like a set point. It didn’t happen today. I felt like the guy couldn’t keep it up, but he did.” 

“I had some problems with my serve. My backhand was flying on me a little bit. He hit some incredible passing shots. By the end I got a little bit down. I was looking forward to playing well here in my hometown. This is a tough loss to deal with.” 

 “John was great. He was positive. There was a buzz in the crowd. John and I talked about it--they were on the verge of exploding. I just wish I could have given them more.  I’m disappointed I couldn’t give them more and a better show.”

 “People who know me know I’m hard on myself when I don’t play the way I expect to play. I expect to win every match. I just have to get over it, and go out and support the team.” 

“I’m sorry I got us off to a bad start. The beauty of the Davis Cup is that you have teammates and maybe they can come through for you.” 

If you read the press, you don’t really get this kind of feeling for Pete. It wasn’t a superhuman effort and he didn’t puke on the court. But you could see he’d given it everything he’d had today, and when it wasn’t enough it hurt him. 

The casual tennis fan—and even a lot of people close to the game who should know better—can’t understand why top players lose. You could hear it in the stands at the Forum. “Oh my god, Pete double faulted!”  “Come on, Sampras, don’t you know you’re playing for America now?” 

Agassi gets a question along the same lines in his press conference, something about is he over his “slump”? 

 “Okay you’re going to have to tell me about this slump,” he replies with benign condescension. “You mean I’m not winning everything, right?”  Then he favors the guy with an inside view of the realities of pro tennis. 

Aggasi worked extremely hard, got ahead in the points, and finished them like a cold-blooded killer

 “That’s not the way it works. You try to peak four times a year for the Slams—and Davis Cup is four more weeks. You can’t peak 8 times. You need to be fit, ready fresh, and rested. That’s not easy when you play all year and there’s no off season.” 

In Indian Wells, Agassi lost in the first round and people wondered—what happened?  Why didn’t he win?  It’s a complete mystery to them. He’s a great player right?  So why did he lose? 

But today they’ve forgotten that because Agassi played an unbelievable match—it was just so completely dominating and beautiful. And it played into the scary patriotism in the crowd. A lot of people painted red, white, and blue—with too much time on their hands and not enough going in their own lives. 

Aggasi worked extremely hard, got ahead in the points, and finished them like a cold-blooded killer. And hit a lot of well-timed service winners, plus a few aces. 

He made it look as easy as the average fan probably thinks it should be all the time.  Supposedly, he’s a model for all the kids with those big loopy strokes. But if you watch closely, his game seems more and more compact, and minimal. He gets behind the ball, his balance is perfect—then he hits through his shots cleanly and effortlessly. 

If you want a lesson from Agassi that you can apply in your game listen to how he described his match:

 “I had to establish a good work ethic. My game is based on my work ethic. If I’m hustling, then I’m getting in position. If I’m in position then I can bring out the variety in my game.” 

So what about the captain? John looks exhausted. As usual, he’s the first one to criticize himself.. 

 “It’s difficult to know what to do. I could have done better. I have to find a way to get the energy up when things are going poorly. It’s not easy to know how to motivate the players. The first time I ever sat next to Pete as a coach was today.” 

But you have no doubt about his complete determination—and I mean complete--not only to win this tie, but the 2000 cup championship. 

 “We’re in a dogfight. But we’re going to find a way to win this.”  

Yet one more very serious reporter asks him, “Does the loss today make the doubles more important?” 

John ducks his eyes and does one of his familiar head scratches: “I don’t think you have to be Albert Einstein to know the answer to that question. Every match is a lot more important now.”  

Later I come upon a couple of writers who have him cornered for a few more questions.   Is he getting more relaxed now that he’s been captain for a while? 

“It’s not what you call relaxing. It’s like they want to make sure I don’t sleep a lot. I’m uncomfortable basically from the time we start Davis Cup until—hopefully—we win it.”