The Dream Team in Texas

The Davis Cup pre-draw press conference transcripts contained no bombshell revelations or coded messages that are apt to change our basic feelings about this tie, although there were some moments of warmth and mirth thanks to the fraternal make-up of the U.S. squad.

At one point, James Blake, responding to a general question about ways in which he and Andy Roddick are alike - and different - came up with this gem:

Maybe I'm just a sentimental schmoe, but I have a soft spot for that sort of familiarity, it's one thing that cannot be faked, the way you can feign having respect or admiration. What a welcome change this sound bite is from the norm -  the prudent, opaque and  ever so cautious evaluations that stink to high heaven of unease, and a lack of real feeling, one way or another. I want to see this US team win, if only for that reason.

Once again, Roddick was asked to reflect on the the Davis Cup tie he attended in 1992 at Fort Worth, Tx., when he was 10.  He said, "I saw possibly the greatest Davis Cup team ever play and win there. And you know, it really struck a chord with me. I've always been excited about Davis Cup."

It's funny, but Pete Sampras and I talked about that Fort Worth tie (vs. Switzerland) at length for Pete's book. It wouldn't be right for me to cannibalize that material, but I can share some of it, starting with the backstory.

Pete made his Davis Cup debut in the 1991 final, vs. a strong French squad riding a wave of emotion at home in Lyon (the French were driving for their first Open-era Davis Cup final win). Pete, barely 20 years old, was in over his head - way, way over his head.

Unlike Andy Roddick, Pete had no warm childhood memories of Davis Cup. He rarely saw the event on television (remember, cable and satellite TV were in their infancy in Sampras's youth).He had a vague idea that he was playing for his country, on a team, and that it would be different in some ways from tournament play, but he had no real idea of what to expect.  Yet US Captain Tom Gorman named  him the squad's No. 1 singles player, which must be one most daring - and ill-advised - moves a captain ever made. It's like giving a rookie quarterback his first start in the Super Bowl.

In a post the other day, I mentioned that Pete feels like he never "choked" in a match, prompting Miguel Seabra to cite a handful of matches, including that Lyon Davis Cup final, in which it seemed that Pete had choked. But as Pete maintains, there's a big difference between choking - which is putting yourself in a position to win, and then losing your nerve and failing to close out an opponent - and other forms of losing ignominiously. In Lyon, Pete "froze." He was petrified, with no idea of how to handle the situation. Andre beat Guy Forget to take the first singles rubber, but then  Pete was blitzed by Henri Leconte. The French won the doubles, and Guy Forget clinched the Cup for France when he hammered Pete in the fourth match. Pete's all-encompassing explanation for that lost weekend in Lyon is always the same: "I was the wrong man for the job."

By then, the late Tim Gullikson had signed on to coach Pete, and one of the first things Gully - a big  Davis Cup supporter - wanted to do was help Pete bounce back from his Davis Cup debacle. So Pete played in 1992, starting with the first-round tie against a tough Argentina squad featuring Alberto Mancini and Martin Jaite. The US was lucky to have home-advantage, and held the tie on hard courts in Hawaii. I covered that tie, and the US looked invincible, winning 5-0 -  with Andre and Pete playing singles, and John McEnroe partnering Rick Leach in doubles.

The US ultimately reached the the final in '92 and chose to play on an indoor hard court in Forth Worth.The four-man US squad was truly a Dream Team: World No. 1 Jim Courier, Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras and John McEnroe. The Swiss were a two-man show, featuring Jakob Hlasek and Marc Rosset. As Pete said, "Neither guy was a household name but, unlike many Europeans, both guys were very good on fast courts. Hlasek was in the midst of his career year in singles, and  Rosset was a guy with a game as tricky as it was big. He could play serve and volley with the best of them."

On paper, this tie was far more of a mismatch (favoring the US) than one that will take place this weekend.  But Rosset was still drawing emotional fuel from his career moment of glory, which took place just months earlier: an 8-6 in the fifth, gold-medal singles win at the Olympic Games on the red clay of Barcelona. And Hlasek, in addition to being a Top 10 singles player, was a good doubles performer - the Swiss doubles team had won the French Open in June of '92.

Gorman, perhaps mindful of the way Pete froze in Lyon, decided to play it safe. He named Jim and Andre to the singles slots and put Pete down as John McEnroe's partner for the doubles. "It was fine with me," Pete now says. "Jim and Andre were both playing well. Andre had proven himself as a great Davis Cup player. He he was an emotional guy who fed off a Davis Cup crowd. Jim was not far behind him; he was also gritty and very cool under pressure. But even with the talent we had, we didn't take a win for granted."

Agassi gave up just five games to Hlasek in the first rubber. But then Rosset upset Courier in a five-set epic, and the doubles began to look a lot more critical than it had before the tie started. The situation became truly shaky when McEnroe and Sampras lost the first two sets of the doubles, both in tiebreakers. Pete remembers thinking, "Man, these guys are tough, and we've got twelve thousand people going nuts for us here."

McEnroe and Sampras had gotten a few tough calls earlier in the match, and another one in the third set was all McEnroe needed. He blew up. He berated the chair umpire, the linesmen, and even US captain Tom Gorman -  the latter for failing to make more of a fuss over the bad calls. Play was ordered to continue, but McEnroe kept muttering and complaining , right through the next changeover and beyond. Finally, Pete just lost it. He turned to McEnroe and snapped,  “John, it’s over. Done with. Let’s not harp on what happened three games ago, it’s time to move on, man.”

Pete's protest had a calming affect on McEnroe. The two men settled into a long, slow grind and managed to wrestle away a win, 6-2 in the fifth. Courier atoned for his first-day loss with a convincing win over Hlasek to clinch the cup, 3-1. On paper, from a distance, this may look like it was a routine win by a vastly superior squad. But those who were present know it was anything but.

That's a good thing to keep in mind as the US, not quite as talented as that 1992 squad, prepares to face a Russian squad that evokes a simple word that also describes the US mission this weekend: Tricky.