previous- next - Back to Articles - News main - Home Source: www.usopen.org U.S. Announces Davis Cup Team Thursday, September 6, 2001 The United States Tennis Association and U.S. Davis Cup Captain Patrick McEnroe today announced a squad of six players who will represent the United States against India in the 2001 Davis Cup by NEC Qualifying Round to be held Sept. 21-23 at the Joel Coliseum in Winston-Salem, N.C. Named to the squad are Andy Roddick of Boca Raton, Fla., Todd Martin of Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., James Blake of Fairfield, Conn., Rob Ginepri of Marietta, Ga., Jared Palmer of Palo Alto, Calif., and Don Johnson of Chapel Hill, N.C. In accordance with International Tennis Federation (ITF) rules, McEnroe must officially nominate four players for play against India by a Sept. 11 deadline. However, McEnroe has until one hour before the tie's draw ceremony scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 20 at 11 am to replace up to two of the four originally nominated players. "We have a great group of committed players � both young guns and veterans � and we will have to be in top form to beat a talented Indian team," said McEnroe. "We will name four players to the ITF on Tuesday as a technicality and will submit our four-man team one hour before Thursday's draw as dictated by Davis Cup rules." Roddick, 19, has burst onto the men's tennis scene this year � winning the first three ATP singles titles of his career in Atlanta, Houston and Washington, D.C. He made his Davis Cup debut in February against Switzerland, defeating George Bastl in a dead-rubber singles match in the 3-2 U.S. loss to the Swiss. Martin, 31, has represented the United States in Davis Cup play every year since he made his Davis Cup debut against India in the first round of the 1994 competition. Martin holds a 14-14 Davis Cup record (11-8 in singles) and was a singles finalist at the 1994 Australian Open and 1999 US Open. Blake, 21, is fresh off an impressive summer run where he reached his first ATP semifinal in Newport, R.I. and defeated Arnaud Clement en route to the third round of Cincinnati. Blake was an NCAA singles finalist at Harvard University in 1999. His only previous Davis Cup experience came in serving as a practice partner for the U.S. teams that played against Australia in 1999 and against Switzerland earlier this year. Ginepri, 18, moved up 911 spots in the ATP Entry System rankings since March to his current ranking of No. 327. A finalist at the 2000 US Open junior championships, Ginepri turned professional last year and reached the second round of the 2001 US Open, defeating Harel Levy in the first round. Palmer, 30, is a three-year veteran of the U.S. Davis Cup team, competing in 1994, 1995 and 2000 and holding a 3-3 career Davis Cup record (2-3 in doubles). Palmer won the Australian Open doubles title in 1994 with Richey Reneberg and the Wimbledon doubles title in 2001 with Johnson. Johnson, who will turn 33 on Sept. 9, will be making his Davis Cup debut in this tie and will be the second-oldest man to make a Davis Cup debut for the United States, behind Francis Hunter, who made his Davis Cup debut in 1927 at the age of 33 years, 2 months, 12 days. Johnson, a former standout player at the University of North Carolina, has won six doubles titles this year � including his first Grand Slam men's doubles title at Wimbledon with Palmer. India, one of just 18 competing Davis Cup nations to ever reach a Davis Cup final, is led by 1996 Olympic bronze medalist Leander Paes and teammate Mahesh Bhupathi. The pair, arguably the world's best doubles team, were the first team in over 45 years to reach all four Grand Slam doubles finals in a calendar year, winning the 1999 Wimbledon and French Open doubles titles and losing in the final of the Australian and US Opens. The U.S. will have to win this tie in order to stay in the Davis Cup World Group in 2002 and be eligible to win the 2002 Davis Cup championship. Earlier this year, the United States was defeated by Switzerland 3-2 in the first round of the 2001 Davis Cup in Basel, Switzerland. Joel Coliseum, the home of the Wake Forest University basketball team, will be configured for 6,400 seats for the weekend. AIG is the official sponsor of the U.S. Davis Cup team. The United States Tennis Association owns and stages the US Open and selects the teams that compete in Davis Cup, Fed Cup and the Olympic Games. The USTA is the national governing body for the sport of tennis in America and is a non-profit organization with more than 620,000 members. It invests all its resources to promote and develop the growth of tennis, from the grass roots to the professional levels. |