Agassi enjoys teaming up with Sampras

Victoria Sun

Friday, April 7, 2000 | 10:07 a.m.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. -- Top-ranked men's tennis player Andre Agassi is used to being on the other side of the net against fellow American Pete Sampras -- the two have played each other 29 times during Agassi's 14-year career.

It's seldom, however, that the two have been teammates fighting for a common goal instead of trying to blast each other off the court.

That's one of the reasons Agassi, a Las Vegas native, enjoys playing Davis Cup, tennis' equivalent of golf's Ryder Cup.

This afternoon, third-ranked Sampras was to play Jiri Novak and Agassi was to face Slava Dosedel in the United States' Davis Cup quarterfinal tie against the Czech Republic at the Great Western Forum.

"It's an opportunity for an individual sport to come together as a team," Agassi said. "I mean, that's something that we don't get to do too often.

"While we still have to take care of our job and you can't specifically pass the ball if you're having a bad day, you can still win without playing well and you can still lose if you are playing well so you really count on each other. And ask a lot of each other. That's what makes it special.

"It's nice to have this talent on the team. I mean, we have the best doubles team and arguably the best players so it's quite a luxury."

No arguing there.

Former Stanford teammates Jared Palmer and Alex O'Brien, the third-ranked doubles team in the world, round out the U.S. team.

Palmer and O'Brien will play their only scheduled match on Saturday afternoon against Novak and David Rikl. The captain of the U.S. team is John McEnroe while the Czech Republic team is headed by Jan Kodes.

Even if the heavily favored Americans sweep their first three matches to clinch a spot in the semifinals against the winner of the tie between Spain and Russia, the two teams will play their final two singles matches on Sunday afternoon to determine the final score. Sampras is scheduled to play Dosedel and Agassi is scheduled to play Novak.

Although Agassi injured his right ankle in the quarterfinals of the Ericsson Open before losing in the semifinals last week, he said he is ready to play.

"I'm doing OK, not great," he said. "I consider everything to be great if I don't have to have it taped and I have no reservations about playing on it.

"But I know I need the support of taping it which isn't ideal, but it's definitely responding."

Agassi has played on the U.S. Davis Cup team eight other times and holds a 28-5 singles record in Davis Cup, second in singles wins to McEnroe, who holds the all-time record of 41.

McEnroe called the Czech team unpredictable and dangerous because they play "a lazy style" that could easily be mistaken for complacency.

Agassi knows the perils of taking opponents for granted, especially during Davis Cup matches.

In the first round of Davis Cup played February in Harare, Zimbabwe, the U.S. trailed 1-2 against a feisty Zimbabwe squad before rallying for a 3-2 victory. The Czech Republic upset Great Britain 4-1.

Agassi won his first match against Wayne Black to give the U.S. a 1-0 lead then beat Byron Black after overcoming an illness that caused vomiting, nausea and cramps to bring the U.S. back to 2-2. American Chris Woodruff sealed the victory with a win over Wayne Black.

Given that close call, Agassi downplayed the heightened expectations.

"On paper, it looks great, but you still have to go out there and execute," he said. "I realize these guys can pull off wins, and there's no better arena for those wins to take place, or more common.

"They happen a lot in Davis Cup and I do not want them to happen here in our backyard."