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INSIDE TENNIS: Back in 2000, your brother John abruptly quit as captain after only three ties and you were named captain. He had campaigned so hard for the job and there was so much excitement surrounding his selection, but after Sampras and Agassi declined to go to Spain and the team was shut out, he walked away.
PATRICK MCENROE: It was tough for him because he put so much into playing Davis Cup and he realized quickly that he couldn’t have the same impact as a captain, and the players didn’t have the same kind of commitment and passion he had. I was surprised when he decided to pull the plug as early as he did, but in retrospect, it was good for him. He realized that it wasn’t going to work for who he is. He likes to play and he’s continued to play and has been incredibly successful. That’s his passion and his TV work is great. It was hard because he wanted it for so many years and then said, “Wait, this isn’t for me.” I had interviewed for the job before he did, but then I took myself out of it because it was my brother’s job to have at the time. When it came up again, I went after it full bore. It was my dream to be captain. I went at it with everything I had.
IT: Was there any sign that because John decided to resign so quickly that it would hurt your candidacy?
PM: I never got that vibe at all. I heard a rumbling here or there, but that was just part of the process. It was six of one, half a dozen of the other. There were even some people who said give it to Patrick because I’m his brother. I felt I was right guy for the job — a good but not great player and who can make a good coach.
IT: Superstar athletes often don’t become great coaches, although Yannick Noah was highly successful and Mats Wilander has done pretty well as a team captain. It can be a problem matching big egos.
PM: That’s part of it, but it’s also a different kind of time commitment for those who often have more options on their plate. Great players have a mentality where they don’t always see it from the other players’ perspectives. Part of being a great player is having a single-minded vision of what you need to do, to do it your way, and as a player that was the way to do it. As captain, on the court and in the heat of the moment, Andy Roddick can say to me, “You don’t know what the hell you are doing because you’ve never played a match like this,” and he could be right, but it’s about knowing them, what pushes their buttons and to know when and when not to say something.
IT: It’s a learning process to get know who the players really are.
PM: Off court, it’s fine. But on court in the heat of the moment, they remember everything. If you say something they think is wrong, you’re going to hear about it later. That’s the learning curve, where you have to understand the guy’s entire mentality and what they like to hear and what they don’t, and that’s different for every guy. You have to get familiar with them, their private coaches, what they’re working on, their mind-sets, what they like to do against particular players. A big part of my job has been to keep the lines of communication open with private coaches and make sure you’re not stepping on anyone’s toes.
IT: Trust must be a huge issue on both sides.
PM: Take that a step further because I’m a TV analyst, where I have to be unbiased in my commentary. Obviously, I want my guys to do well, and any analyst who tells you they don’t is just lying, but you have to be able to criticize them. It hasn’t been always been easy. Those guys hear it. Sometimes the things I say carry weight and it’s been a tricky dynamic. The last couple of years, I’ve had conversations with all the guys and we’ve come to an agreement that it’s part of the job.
IT: So they’ve matured to the point where you might say something on TV like, “Even if Andy plays the match of his life, he’s not going to beat Federer,” or, “Blake really underperformed in the fifth set of his tie-breaker loss against Tommy Haas at the Open?”
PM: I think they can handle it because they’re big boys and it’s part of my job. I always want them to do their best, but sometimes they make poor decisions.
IT: That’s has to be difficult because Andy has a very long memory for any criticism and he opens his ears to a lot of it.
PM: He does, but he and I have learned to be pretty up-front. I’ve learned from him because he’s good about saying, “I didn’t like it when you said that,” and that’s actually helped me be a better captain and understand him better. I give him a lot of credit because sometimes he can be a little thin-skinned, but if something ticks you off you should be able to say it and move on. Plus, the guys understand there are certain things I’ll talk about on TV and certain things that stay in the locker room. The networks that hire me also have to understand that.
IT: How do you deal with [Roddick’s coach] Jimmy Connors?
PM: He’s the one guy I don’t because I have a good feel for what he’s telling Andy and I also have [Andy’s brother] John as the thread, so I know what they’ve been working on. I don’t feel like just because it’s Jimmy Connors, I have to pick up the phone and say, “Hey, Jimmy, what have you been working on with Andy?” Plus, Andy isn’t with him all the time and I can also talk to Andy, who’s pretty up-front as to what he’s been working on.
IT: Was there any carryover to your relationship with Sampras and Agassi after the John called them out for not playing against Spain? Sampras was very angry.
PM: I worked hard to get Andre to come back and play, which he did, although unsuccessfully against Croatia [in ‘05], and it was partially my fault he lost because the court surface didn’t suit him. I spent a lot of time asking his advice and keeping him in the loop for a couple years. And when he was beginning to reconsider playing, I flew to Vegas and sat down with him and Darrin Cahill and we went through stuff. It was great to get him back, although not so great that we lost. Pete was pretty much done playing, but I did have one conversation after he won his last Open [in ‘02] and he had just flown home to L.A. — I’ve always had a good relationship with him — and he said, “You know Pat, I was on the plane back and I was thinking, ‘I may never play again,’” and he didn’t. No, I didn’t feel there was any backlash and I started fresh.
IT: And you started fresh in your first tie as captain in ‘01, away against Switzerland, against a guy who may soon become the greatest ever, Roger Federer.
PM: That was funny. I remember watching Federer and every time he put his racket on the ball at net the point ended. He hit all these knife volleys that had so much action on them that they would just die. He beat both Todd Martin and Jan-Michael Gambill in singles, and I remember throwing Andy [who had come in as the fourth member of the team] into the dead rubber against George Bastl, and I’ll never forget how he came out with that energy and enthusiasm and monster serve and I turned to the staff after the match and said, “We have a future.” It was pretty apparent those two guys were going to make some noise.
IT: It took two years to bring in the Bryan Bros. It’s worked out great, as they’ve only lost one match, but in another way, it’s a risk because neither of them compete in singles. If Andy or James ever get hurt there’s a real problem.
PM: We’re in trouble if one of the singles guys goes down, and we’re not in good shape either if one of the doubles guys goes down. But they had to be more than a really good doubles team to take that risk. They had to be great. I watched them closely for a couple of years and they were knocking on the door. It wasn’t until they won the French in ‘03 that they got over the hump. I’ve had so many great experiences with those guys because they’re so professional and so passionate. I’ll never forget their first match against Slovakia, away on clay in ‘03. They came over after warm-up and I said, “Let’s do it,” and they said, “Don’t worry. We’ve been waiting 25 years for this moment.” They come up with a line like that at every Davis Cup tie that gives me goosebumps. They care so much. They make it bigger than life itself. That week Andy was a handful because he had just won the Open and Brad Gilbert [Roddick’s coach] was the guy. Andy had a weird vibe going and he went out to play Dominic Hrbaty in the first match. He said, “Don’t talk to me at all, I know what I’m doing.” I didn’t until he was down a set and break and he came over to me on the changeover and asked, “What can I do?” At that point, he thought he could do whatever I wanted. After that, he was back to his normal self.
IT: Do you put pressure on yourself? Coming into this year, did you say to yourself, ‘We have to win it this time, it’s been too long for me and the country?’
PM: We want to win it bad and a lot of responsibility lies with me to get it done, but if you don’t have the horses, you don’t have a chance. But I’d like to win it as captain and it’s a huge goal for the team. I realized it was an opportunity this year the way the schedule broke, but we’ve been in the mix a few times. But I’m not going to say that I can’t live if we don’t win it. But we’ve been waiting for this opportunity to play at home and it would be huge effort for a group who has been together for so long to win it all together.
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