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From: cccallan@ucdavis.UUCP (Allan McKillop)
Newsgroups: net.sport
Subject: Re: Davis Cup
Message-ID: <326@ucdavis.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 18-Nov-85 01:24:08 EST
Article-I.D.: ucdavis.326
Posted: Mon Nov 18 01:24:08 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 21-Nov-85 20:38:54 EST
References: <199@nvuxb.UUCP>
Organization: University of California, Davis
Lines: 45

> 
> With regard to the choices of Krickstein and Teltscher over Curren and Kriek,
> the court surface was a major consideration in the tie with West Germany.
> That tie was played on slow red European clay, a surface on which neither Curren
> nor Kriek play well.  With the decline of Arias and the unavailability of
> McEnroe and Connors, Krickstein and Teltscher were probably the best choices.
> By the way, Teltscher's behaviour during the West German tie was nothing to
> be proud of either.

sorry, i still don't buy krickstein as a good choice for the team.
his record was very poor this year, and he was not a proven davis
cup player.  let's face it, he cost the US the tie with his play
against westphael.  he choked and lost to a player he shouldn't have.
at least curren and kriek have played in pressure situations before.
the object of any davis cup tie should be to win.  in my mind,
the united states should have won two singles (over westphael)
and the doubles.  that means putting in players who have experience
in pressure matches they are expected to win.  throw away the matches
against becker, they are unimportant.  i don't think ashe did a
very good job of coaching during the tie, and i think the US's
lost is directly related to the poor job he did.

yes, teltscher did behave rather badly, didn't he.  i seem to remember
he made a few choice comments to leslie allen during the french open
mixed doubles final a couple years ago, and one of the reporters there
said that if he (the reporter) had said some of those things to his 
girlfriend, he would have gotten slapped.

i do think it is interesting that the tie with the west germans
showed up the lack of depth in the US men.  the other choices
were: curren, kriek, mayotte, davis, gilbert or even good ol'
vitas "i snort the nose" geruliatis.  hardly contenders for
number one in the near future.  so where is the US men's game
going?  what will happen when mcenroe and connors are gone?
the US will be hard pressed to have a top ten player, let
alone a top five or number one.  will we see another player
like mcenroe burst out of the ranks of being a "good" junior
player to being a great professional player?  any thought?

-- 

Allan McKillop
(...ucbvax!ucdavis!deneb!cccallan)

"Where there's a will, there's a relative..."