Climbing Off Hot Seat, U.S. Stands and Delivers

HARARE, Zimbabwe —  Todd Martin, down and out since the Australian Open, was concerned enough about his U.S. Davis Cup teammates to send a good-luck fax before this tie against Zimbabwe. He went one step further by calling Chris Woodruff on Saturday night.

He joked around with Woodruff, who fought his nerves in a straight-set loss to Byron Black on Friday. Martin told him to have fun. Jim Courier, another American who has been through this sort of thing, also sent word through a mutual friend, wishing him good luck.

So, did John McEnroe or any of the team hear from the injured Pete Sampras?

“Unfortunately not,” McEnroe said.

Sampras’ name came up again when McEnroe was asked about the quarterfinal match against the Czech Republic April 7-9 in Los Angeles, and about Woodruff’s future role. The Czech team defeated Britain, 4-1.

“That’s not a nice question,” McEnroe said. “It’s really unfair because it’s inherently unfair. It’s like, you [Woodruff] just played the biggest match of your life, thank you very much, now get the hell out of here.

“I just don’t want to think about it. This job gets tougher because we had such great team spirit. I believe with this team, we’d beat Czechoslovakia. I’ll tell you that right now. This team would beat Czechoslovakia.”

Will he keep the team intact?

“I don’t know what I’m going to do, but I’m tempted to,” he said.

The Czech Republic was led by Jiri Novak and Slava Dosedel against Britain, on clay in Ostrava, Czech Republic. Quite possibly, McEnroe could get past the Czech team without Sampras and reward Woodruff for his clinching effort in Zimbabwe.

McEnroe wants to play the quarterfinal at the Great Western Forum and it appears close to a done deal. Minutes after Woodruff’s clinching victory, McEnroe was doing a television interview with his brother, Patrick, saying, “We’ll be there at the Fabulous Forum.”

All that appears to be remaining is input from the players.

“I’d like to play at the Forum,” McEnroe said. “I think the Forum would be great. I’ve been at the Forum hundreds of times. But obviously I want to talk to people on the team and obviously people like Andre [Agassi] for starters.

“And this guy.”

McEnroe was looking at and talking about Woodruff.

“All of a sudden I’m going to ask him what he thinks,” he said.