U.S. Davis Cup Team Has a Hamburg Date With Becker July 29

Arthur Ashe can remember the good old days--last summer--when captaining the United States’ Davis Cup team was as easy as popping open a can of tennis balls and watching John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors smash them all over the court for winners.

Ah, memories.

That’s all they are now.

The most recent installments of the continuing U.S. Davis Cup drama have more resembled horror tales:

--Murder In Gothenburg: Where what was billed as the greatest team in Davis Cup history got ambushed by a blue-eyed, blond-haired posse of killer Swedish baseliners in the 1984 final.

--Escape From New York: That’s where the United States Tennis Assn. has its headquarters--and the USTA is what McEnroe and Connors abandoned when it tried to impose a code of conduct on U.S. Davis Cup players. McEnroe and Connors told the USTA what it could do with its code of conduct and bailed out of Davis Cup competition for 1985.

And, now, for something really scary, kids, welcome to Ashe’s newest nightmare: Big, Bad Boris. That’s right. Next up for the U.S. Davis Cup team as it embarks on the second round of ’85 competition is a date in Hamburg, West Germany, against Boris Becker and a West German team whose stock has shot through the roof in the last week.

A month ago, this had the look of a ho-hum affair for the Americans. An Eliot Teltscher volley here, an Aaron Krickstein forehand there, and bring on the Czechs for the semifinals.

That was before West Germany had a Wimbledon champion in its lineup. Now, the United States is sending, essentially, its junior varsity to the home courts of the latest, greatest rage in tennis--a 17-year-old racket prodigy being hailed as the next Borg, the next McEnroe, or a combination of both.

Suddenly, the United States is an underdog in a preliminary-round Davis Cup match for the first time this decade.

“It will not be an easy win for us,” said Ed Fabricius of the USTA. “I think most would favor them (the West Germans), simply because of Becker.”

That’s a good reason. Another is the clay surface on which the five-match series will be played, beginning July 29. American tennis players have the same type of relationship with clay that Superman had with Kryptonite.

Fabricius, of course, warns against underestimating the U.S. squad, which figures to include Krickstein, Teltscher and the doubles tandem of Ken Flach and Robert Seguso.

“People are favoring the West Germans without really examining it,” Fabricius said. “But it’s like when McEnroe played for us. You can have one great player, but you need someone else.”

The rest of the West German lineup will include Michael Westphal, ranked No. 73 in the world, at the second singles, and the doubles team of Wolfgang Popp and Andreas Maurer.

“We should win the doubles,” Fabricius said. “And I think Teltscher and Krickstein have two wins in them. Teltscher is capable of beating Becker. And Krickstein is not a bad clay-court player.”

Neither is Becker. He is at his best on fast surfaces--his two professional tournament victories have been on grass--but Becker also reached the semifinals of the Italian Open on clay.

If Becker is more than a fortnight flash--and there is evidence to suggest that he is--the United States could find itself in for a troublesome trip to Europe. Especially with the second string making the passage through customs.

In Hamburg, a Big Mac could really come in handy for the Americans.

Kevin Curren became a United States citizen in March, making him eligible for the U.S. Davis Cup team, but there’ll be no rematch of the Wimbledon final on West German clay.

Why? Mainly because of the West German clay.

With his smash-a-serve-and-just-try-to-return-it style of play, Curren is strong on hard courts, better on grass. But clay nullifies the strength of his game.

As Fabricius put it, “Curren has done nothing on clay, really.”

Even if the Americans advance, clay is probably in their future for the rest of the year. The Czechs play on it, and the Swedes reign as world champions on it.

Curren could break into the U.S. lineup only if Ecuador upsets Czechoslovakia in the second round, which would bring the semifinals to American hard courts in October.

Tennis Notes Eight of the 10 top-ranked women professional players are entered in the Virginia Slims of Los Angeles tournament, which will be held July 29-Aug. 4 at the Manhattan Country Club in Manhattan Beach. Second-ranked Martina Navratilova heads the field, followed by No. 3 Hana Mandlikova, No. 5 Zina Garrison, No. 6 Pam Shriver, No. 7 Helena Sukova, No. 8 Kathy Rinaldi, No. 9 Claudia Kohde-Kilsch and No. 10 Wendy Turnbull. Navratilova, Garrison and Rinaldi were Wimbledon semifinalists. Missing from the top 10 are defending champion Chris Evert Lloyd, still ranked No. 1, and No. 4 Manuela Maleeva. Also entered in the 56-player draw are Carling Bassett and a trio of local players ranked in the top 60--Debbie Spence of Cerritos, Melissa Gurney of Palos Verdes and Stephanie Rehe of Highland.