DAVIS CUP ANNOUNCEMENT

January 31, 2006

Patrick McEnroe

PATRICK McENROE: Thanks, Tim. Thanks, everybody, for being on. I will make the announcement of the team, then take any questions. Joining us in La Jolla will be Andy Roddick, James Blake, Bob and Mike Bryan as the four players for this first-round match. We will also have Jesse Whitten and Phillip Simmons at practice players, and also Mardy Fish will be there for about four or five days to practice with the team as he tries to get his game back on track coming off his injury. He'll be with us for a few days, as well. Happy to take any questions.

PATRICK McENROE: They beared a huge amount. Obviously, the big decision for me was for the second singles spot. It was basically between three guys at that point, which was James, Robby Ginepri and Taylor Dent, with James and Robby sort of being the front-runners on that based on their ranking, how well they played recently, particularly the end of last year. It was a tough decision. Basically the fact that James went I believe 7-1 or 7-2, because he won the first event in Sydney, actually lost in Adelaide, but he had some solid wins. Robby I quite honestly thought was going to play a lot better down there. That didn't happen. But those guys are very close. We may need all of them at some point in the year. We're certainly hoping to have four matches to play this year. I certainly think that's quite possible. The results in Australia had a huge effect on my decision.

PATRICK McENROE: I think that was a tough loss to take. I watched most of the match. He was up two sets to love, up 3-Love in the third. I went off to an ESPN production meeting, which I'm now sorry I did. When I looked up 45 minutes later, it was two sets apiece. I couldn't figure out what happened. He was in complete control of the match. I went back out and watched the fifth set. Look, he was disappointed. As I told him after the match, we've always lost five-set matches being up two sets. I know I had a couple times. So it happens. When you look at the fact that James won Sydney, had wins over Davydenko and some very solid wins there. James didn't play great himself in his third-round loss to Robredo. Robredo is a much more quality opponent than Gremelmayr. Just based on what I saw down there, because they're so close at this point, it's almost like you go with the hotter hand at that moment. Robby was 1-2 down in Australia. Not to say that he couldn't come in and win a match against Romania or two matches, but when they're that close, I really have to take into account who is playing better at that particular moment.

PATRICK McENROE: No, I'm very positive not just about this tie but the whole year. Our guys took a couple of tough losses down there. It's one event. The last time I checked, Andy Roddick is still 3 in the world. He lost to Baghdatis, which at the time we were all sort of shocked about. At the moment, seeing what Baghdatis did, maybe not quite as shocked. So, no, I'm just as confident. I think the conditions were tough for our guys. They didn't adapt to it real well. The conditions were quite slow, certain certainly a lot slower than they are in La Jolla and certainly than they would be at the US Open. We're optimistic. I think all the guys really feel like this year could be our year. We have a good chance to go deep in the event. I think we've got as good a chance as anyone to win it.

PATRICK McENROE: As far as I know, and I did speak to Andy when he was getting ready to go to Delray Beach, and his attitude at that point was, "I'm going to go and play the qualifying." I spoke to him probably two days before he was getting ready to go. I haven't spoken to him since. But based on what I read and heard, I don't think Andy was particularly pleased that it came out in advance. I also think his understanding initially was that he was going to have to play just one match per day, meaning two matches total. I guess because so many players -- they don't know how many players are going to show up for qualifying until the day before, and I guess it turned out that enough players were showing up that he would have to play two matches in one day. Andy Roddick is one of the fittest players in tennis, but I don't think he wanted to put himself through playing two matches in one day. Maybe not the smartest thing for him to do in the long run. So I think when he heard that, combined with the fact that they released this information maybe a little earlier than he had hoped, I think that was a determining factor.

PATRICK McENROE: Oh, definitely. He takes Davis Cup very seriously, thankfully for all of us Davis Cup tennis fans. There's one of our top guys who is always committed and always played. I think sometimes people take that for granted. I know I don't. I think it was a good sign. Look, he didn't play that much in the end of last year. He had the injury to his back. He trained his butt off. He went to Australia, played in the warm-up event, which is a couple of practice matches, then played the Australian Open and lost earlier than expected. He got home. He was home a full week before he expected to be. He thought, "Well, I might go, and I'm ready to play. I've done all my training, I've done the off-court work, now I need to play." I think that's why he wanted to do it. I think Davis Cup is part of that to get himself ready. It's too bad it didn't happen. At the same time it's certainly not the end of the world.

PATRICK McENROE: Definitely. I mean, look, we've got guys now that are young but have a lot of experience in Davis Cup. When I took over, all these guys were really, really raw when they came to play for their country. They got along with each other, great teammates. With the Bryan brothers, you have a solid doubles team that's going to play well on Saturday, which is always a crucial point in the doubles. Certainly in Roddick we have a great leader, a guy who has played a ton of matches in Davis Cup. Lost his first match ever at home last year against Croatia in the first round. He's got a great record at home. James has had a great last six months, has always played pretty well in Davis Cup. As I said, with the other guys nipping at their heels like Taylor Dent, Robby Ginepri, possibly Andre Agassi at some point, we've got a real core of players that are committed. A couple of things break our way, I think we've got an excellent chance to go all the way this year.

PATRICK McENROE: I think it's possible. I think we'll see how the rest -- the next few months play out. Obviously, look, my concern at the moment is to win Round 1. After losing first round last year, I learned pretty quickly that even when you have a match at home, a very strong team, that's the best idea. I'll take this match as its own entity. When we get through that hopefully with a win, we'll start thinking about the next match. But clearly the team could change throughout the course of the year. In some ways we might need it to change based on who we're playing, the surface, the various differences that each tie poses.

PATRICK McENROE: I think it's in pretty good shape. I think his point was a valid one, which was last year at the US Open, he's our top guy, he loses in the first round at the US Open, and then a week later we've got three players in the last eight, then we've got two in the final four, in Agassi and Ginepri. We sort of finish the year quite well. We've now got four players in the top 20 when the new rankings came out today. Roddick is still 3 in the world. He'll be the first to tell you he was extremely disappointed with his result in Australia. I certainly expected both James and Robby to do better, but it didn't happen. The reality is that there's probably not one country that's ever going to dominate in tennis the way we used to or the way Australia used to. The game is so global now. The expectations from some of those in the American media, that they just expect us to dominate, is sort of misguided at this point. I think we're in pretty good shape. I think these next couple months will be important for us, important for Andy to get some wins under his belt and to play well in Davis Cup. I think there's always questions, and that's part of what has made us part of a great tennis country. We're not satisfied with being No. 3 or No. 4. But at the same time you have to look at the reality of the situation, and the reality that there's a guy at the top of the men's game now who is quite possibly on his way to becoming the greatest ever. I think there's certainly room to improve, but we've got our -- our young guys have certainly stepped up in the last six months, and we have a couple of them, other than Andy, which we take for granted as being a top three, top four player, in the top 20 now with the chance to go higher.

PATRICK McENROE: There are some guys out there but the jury is still out. We certainly have a lot of talented players at the junior level. The key for us is to get them from the junior level, where Donald Young wins the Australian Open Juniors last year, to make the transition to the pro level. We have this kid Phillip Simmons who is coming out with us next week as a practice partner. He just won a futures event. We have some talent there. Now it's up to us to mould them. This kid Sam Querrey who came with us last year to Belgium from Southern Cal, from your area, is a very talented young player. I mean, we've got some talent, but obviously making that next step to the pro level is difficult. We need our guys to realize how difficult it is and work them harder and get them tougher and get them ready for that next level. Yes, we do have some young guys out there that have potential. Now, the difference between potential and performance, those are where the questions are. That's what we're going to find out in the next couple years.

PATRICK McENROE: That sounds right.

PATRICK McENROE: That wasn't the first. The first match was we played in Switzerland actually.

PATRICK McENROE: Right.

PATRICK McENROE: I don't think there's any doubt about the maturity now and the experience that we have now. Now it's a question of doing it and performing. Do we have the capability of going away on clay and winning? Yes. I mean, are we as much a favorite as we are at home playing on hard court? No, there's no question about that. But at the same time our guys have played well on clay at times. It's certainly not our best surface. Everybody knows that. But can we go in and win a tough match on clay? Sure. I mean, Andy won a heck of a tough match against Rochus to clinch the match against Belgium. That was a great sign for us. And James is certainly capable of playing well on clay. Robby, I think if he gets a little more patience with his style of play, could certainly be a good clay court player. But that hasn't happened yet. I certainly believe it's possible. At the same time, you're right, we can no longer use the reason, "Hey, we're young." We have the experience. We've been in a semifinal at Roland Garros. We've been in a final in front of the largest crowd in history in Spain. We know what it's like to go away and play in hostile territory. Certainly we'd prefer to have all the matches at home than away. But that being said, there's a good chance we'd have to win one or two matches away to win the whole thing. We're certainly capable of doing that.

PATRICK McENROE: As far as James goes, look, I'm really concerned with who's going to win us a match. I mean, James has obviously had a great chemistry with the guys, but so does Robby and so does Taylor. He's been on our team a couple of times. It's not really about that. I used to be struggling with the second player because it was a question of which guy am I going to take a chance on. Now I think it's more, which guy is really the best shot. They've all sort of -- certainly Robby could make a strong case that he deserves to play this match. He's had excellent results. He's ranked slightly higher than James at this point. Now I think it's more of a positive in that I've got a tough call to make 'cause all the guys are reaching their potential. I think Taylor, he didn't play well in Australia, but his fitness was a lot better. I think that's going to make a huge difference for him over the course of the year. I guess the answer to that is no. I mean, I don't feel like it has to be James to give us the best chance to win it. Obviously if it is, that means that he's, in my mind, deserving to be the chance to be the guy for the whole year. As far as Andy goes, I think his confidence is down slightly. But I think what it takes is for him to go out there and do what he wants to do, which is play aggressively and play his game. He said it himself. He wanted to play on his terms. I didn't think he did that entirely against Baghdatis. But at the same time Baghdatis certainly showed as the tournament went on that the guy was on a serious roll. Maybe even I underestimated how well the guy played against Andy. I like to see Andy being aggressive, taking chances. When I see someone hitting more winners and getting more errors than Andy, that doesn't have the same firepower that he does, then I get concerned. This is big for him. Davis Cup, he always gets himself pumped up for. I'm not concerned about how he's going to be prepared for that. And I think you'll see him look to play well in the two Masters events. That's big for him. He needs a big result in a big event. I certainly think that's going to happen.

PATRICK McENROE: You know, I have trouble saying that. Maybe there's some way to do that if I guess a couple people pulled out, right, at the last minute?

PATRICK McENROE: It's sort of tricky because it does hurt the guys that are waiting to get in. That sort of goes against what the ATP has been about for many years. I'm a little torn by that. At the same time I would have loved to have seen Andy been able to play. It seems like something could have been worked out. The tournament director has the prerogative and has the wildcards at his disposal. It was a tough situation. I mean, I think it's worth looking into. I'm not going to go out and say I think they should change it because, quite honestly, I haven't given it that much thought.

PATRICK McENROE: It doesn't happen that often, so I hadn't really thought about it. I guess if there's a situation where a couple of players pull out, maybe that's not a bad idea to think about. But I'm not going to go out there and say it's a huge problem. It just doesn't happen that much.

PATRICK McENROE: Yeah, we spoke a few times, even as early as probably a week or so ago. I did speak to him a couple times when I was in Australia. He's definitely expressed some interest in playing. We both know the schedule. It's a possibility. I think the way he's taking it, which is the right way, which is, "Let's get through this first round and see what happens, see how we play, see how the guys are playing." I certainly felt very comfortable for this match with James and/or Robby in particular, with Taylor certainly as a possibility. But those are my two guys I was really looking at to play this particular match. I think it's a possibility, it's a possibility down the road. I'm not going to commit either way. There's just too many factors that can happen. Andre was very positive about potentially playing. Certainly he felt that given where he was and given the options I had, going with either Robby or James was a better option for us at this point. I appreciated that. I appreciated him being up front and being honest about that. But certainly for me just throwing him out there, I realize he's Andre Agassi, but having not played a tournament for five months essentially. He may go win Delray, that's certainly possible. I didn't know that a week ago or two weeks ago. I think he was aware of that. That made my decision pretty easy. Hopefully my decisions will get tougher as the year goes on, meaning we'll keep winning and we'll have everybody wanting to play.

PATRICK McENROE: I tell you what, it didn't really go under the radar in Australia. I was happy to see ESPN showed almost I believe the whole match. I thought that was great for the doubles and with the guys. The crowd in Australia was probably 90% there and into it. It was one of the best doubles matches I've seen. It was a great match. I was really proud of them and happy for them. I've been there the last two years when they lost in the final. Believe me, to lose in a Grand Slam final is a huge disappointment. They lost two in a row down there. I believe it was last year they lost three Slam finals in a row, in Australia, Paris, then at Wimbledon. They've now won two in a row. To me it's just a testament to what kind of positive guys they are. Even in disappointment, there can be nothing worse than losing three major finals in a row. They take the positive out of it, they keep coming back, they keep putting pressure on themselves to do well in the big events. And they do that with Davis Cup. Every Davis Cup match, they themselves say it's like a Grand Slam final to them. They revel in the pressure and atmosphere of it all. They love to say, "This is the biggest match of the year for us." I love that attitude about them. As I said earlier, they love Davis Cup, and you know come Saturday they're going to be prepared to play, and they're going to play well. That doesn't guarantee they're going to win every match, but I think it gives me and the other guys on the team a huge comfort level to know that these guys are going to come out with everything they possibly have to win that match. Obviously, they're great team guys, they're great role models. We've been extremely lucky. I'm very lucky to have them as a team, you know, not just for what they bring on the court, but what they bring for the whole week and the whole team throughout the year.

PATRICK McENROE: I mean, look, last year obviously the court ended up being a little bit slower than what we probably wanted in hindsight. Hindsight is always a lot easier than what we thought at the time, which was basically that I did want a slow court outside against the big servers from Croatia. It didn't work out particularly for Andre. Andre didn't like the surface. I have to take some responsibility for that, which is why I made an extra trip to go to La Jolla on my way to Australia to test the court, had them redo it to what I think is the right speed. Hopefully that will work. I think it certainly was a wake-up call for all of us that we can lose a match at home. We hadn't lost one since I'd been the captain until that match last year. Obviously, as we all know, it turned out that it wasn't a horrendous loss because Croatia won it, but it hurt. It hurt to lose at home, to be two set points to go up two sets to love in the doubles. If we won the doubles, you're certainly pretty confident you're going to win a match the next day with Roddick and Agassi going. I think we're all aware of what can happen. We know Romania have a couple solid players that have a lot of experience both in big matches and in Davis Cup. We're certainly not going to overlook what we're facing here.

PATRICK McENROE: Well, it's been the greatest job I've ever had. To be the captain, I still look at it the same way I did when I got the job. I never forget the moment when I got the call from Arlen Kantarian that they named me the captain. That was one of the highlights of my life, to be honest. Essentially to still be the captain, to still be the guy that sort of is heading up the effort, it's a huge honor. I love working with our guys. I love the energy they bring. As I said, we've got the experience now. Hopefully we can take it one step forward. The goal is to win, but at the same time the goal is to put forth the effort that makes people proud to be a fan of US tennis. I think our guys, we haven't always won, we've been close, but we put out the right effort out there. That's fun to be part of. I cherish all the weeks that I've been around Davis Cup. Certainly the chance to win it would be a dream come true, to do it as a captain. We think we have a good chance to do it this year. Growing up as a kid, watching the Davis Cup final in La Quinta when my brother played against England as a teenager, now being the captain, lucky enough to play a few matches in my career, it would probably be the biggest thrill in my professional career if we could win it. I think that most of our guys on our team would say the same thing. That's why I feel lucky that guys like Roddick and the Bryans say, "One of our big goals is to win the Davis Cup." You don't hear that too often from too many people. For me to be associated with that is a privilege.

PATRICK McENROE: I've learned you can't take anything for granted as far as who is going to be able to play, injuries, where you play. Obviously losing a match at home last year was a huge shock to all of us. But I certainly know how to deal with -- I think I know how to deal with all the guys on the team. I try to be as honest as I can with everybody. For example, just talking to Robby last week, telling him that I wasn't going to pick him for this match, that's the hardest part of the job, particularly when you know these guys want to play, and Robby has worked very hard and had a great year, certainly deserves to play. But so does James. Those are the hard parts. I guess I've just learned how to deal with that. Honesty is the best policy when it comes to that. Just talk to the guys and tell them exactly why you're making your decision and moving forward.

PATRICK McENROE: First of all, as far as the court goes, I have all the input on what the court surface is going to be. Remember, I talk to the guys and I get their input first and foremost as to what sort of surface we want. It's my responsibility to go out there and play on the court when it's got no lines on it and to tell them it's a little slow, we need to put another coat of paint on it to make it a little quicker, which is what I did in La Jolla the day before I left for Australia. That falls in my lap completely after getting input from the players. But I'm the one that makes the decision on it. As far as Andy goes, part of any great player's strength is stubbornness. Andy certainly has some of that. Andy is a competitor. Andy has won a lot of matches playing the way he knows how to play. I feel like he can play more aggressively and improve his positioning. Do I talk to him about that? Yes. Do I beat him over the head with it? No, because I'm not there with him week in and week out. I'm certainly going to mention it to him again. It's up to him. Look, as I say, he's won a lot more tennis matches than I ever did. There's certain times when you have to listen to your guy and let them do what they want. At the same time I think Andy realizes he plays better when he plays more aggressively. "More aggressively" to me doesn't just mean hitting the ball harder. "More aggressively" to me means improving your positioning and being aware of when to move forward and not to move back. So we'll see. It's a work in progress. The nice thing about Andy is that he's not afraid to work. He's not afraid to take a loss and to realize what he has to do. So I think he's realized that. I think this is a tough loss for him. I think you'll see him improve. That's just what I think. I think he's that kind of guy. He's a very competitive guy. The other thing you have to remember about him, which I often mention, is that he grew up as a small guy. He grew up as a guy that was really sort of a counter-puncher as a player. Part of his instinct is to play that kind of style when he gets into a tight match. A lot of it is changing that instinct when you do get into a tight match, when someone is beating you to the punch the way Baghdatis was in Australia. That can be difficult. I think that's where he needs to keep working, improving, and trust in the fact that when he is playing aggressively, he's still going to lose matches, but in the long run he's going to be a better player, and I think that's what the bottom line is.

PATRICK McENROE: It's definitely not out of sight. I think when we went on to see Croatia won the whole thing, we realized how far we were, but how close we were in some ways to go in. We were there the year before in the final. That still stings. It certainly stings for me. I know it stings for the guys, for the Bryans. That's still the only match they've lost. I think it is motivation for us. I think our antennas are up for this match. Pavel has had an excellent career. The guy has been a solid player on all surfaces. He can play on hard courts pretty well. He's not in his prime the way he was four or five years ago, but he's certainly capable of playing well in a big match. I don't think there's any doubt about. Hanescu has a big serve, hits the ball pretty well off the ground, played great at the French last year. We're going to try to test him on a faster court and see how well he can play. I did the match with him and James Blake at New Haven. He very nearly beat James in two sets. Certainly we're aware of how good both those guys are. We're certainly not thinking this is a 'gimme' by any stretch of the imagination.

PATRICK McENROE: They're two of the four guys.

PATRICK McENROE: Sabau is the third and I think Tecau?

PATRICK McENROE: Tim will have to do that.

TIM CURRY: Horia Tecau.

PATRICK McENROE: Exactly, this week.

PATRICK McENROE: We'll, he's playing a lot smarter now. He's always had the athleticism, weapons in his game. James has sort of a go-for-broke type of player before his injuries and his illness, everything he went through. I think now he's playing with a little more composure, a little more smarts. He's using his speed as a defensive weapon now instead of as just an offensive player. From a strategic standpoint, I didn't like the way he played his match with Robredo in Australia, but I feel like that hasn't happened much at all in the last six months that I've been watching him play. Here is a guy who won one tournament his first six, seven years on the tour, now he's won three pretty good-sized events in the last five months. His confidence is a lot better. He's just playing -- he's really just playing the percentages better overall. He's playing more percentage tennis. When you have the kind of weapons that he has and the speed that he has, you're still going to hit a lot of winners. When you play more to the percentages, you're going to win more matches against players you should beat. James has always been a guy that's dangerous for top players to play but he could lose to guys ranked well below him. I think that's where you're going to see him improve now, he's going to be a lot more consistent week in and week out. That's going to give him a chance to continue moving up in the rankings.

PATRICK McENROE: I think it's possible. Look, if he does well in the first next few months, he didn't play very well the first half of the year last year, so he's got a very realistic chance to get there.

PATRICK McENROE: Thank you, Tim.