Australian Open Capsules: Clijsters out of Australian Open

MELBOURNE, Australia — U.S. Open champion Kim Clijsters slumped out of the season’s first major in a shocking 6-0, 6-1 loss to No. 19-seeded Nadia Petrova on Friday.

Clijsters, who won the U.S. Open in September in only her third tournament back from two years off to get married and have a baby, seemed distracted as she won only five points in an 18-minute first set in her third-round match Friday at the Australian Open.

It barely got better in the second set, when she held serve only once and managed to make it last 52 minutes, saving two match points.

The loss ends hopes of a Clijsters quarterfinal matchup with fellow comeback Belgian Justine Henin, who advanced to the fourth round earlier Friday with a three-set win over Alisa Kleybanova.

The magnitude of the defeat was more astonishing given that Clijsters had beaten Henin in a three-set final at an Australian Open tuneup event at the Brisbane International on Jan. 9.

The lopsided scoreline ranks among her worst. She only won four games in a 6-0, 6-4 loss to Henin in the 2003 French Open final. It was also her first loss in five matches against the 27-year-old Petrova.

Earlier in the day, Henin had staged another memorable comeback to advance in her first Grand Slam out of retirement with a 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 win over No. 27 Alisa Kleybanova.

Facing two break points at 1-3 in the second set, it seemed as if Henin’s dramatic win over Olympic gold medalist and fifth-ranked Elena Dementieva on Wednesday had sapped too much energy. After all, that was only the seventh match for the seven-time Grand Slam winner since she returned from 20 months off the tour.

But Henin managed to hold that game, hitting the lines with her groundstrokes instead of just missing them, and in the next game converted her first break-point chance against Kleybanova. As soon Henin found her range, the match was as good as over.

"I kind of survived a little bit today," Henin said. "It’s always good to win this kind of match because I came back from nowhere.

"Physically I suffered a little bit in the last two days, but finally I did it. I’m very happy that I have another chance to get better in the next round."

Henin, unranked and playing on a wild-card entry, had a momentary lapse in the deciding set when Kleybanova broke her serve, but otherwise dominated the last 10 games.

Only two nights earlier, Henin had to save set points to finish off Dementieva in a tiebreaker, drawing on the experience of losing in similar circumstances to Clijsters after holding match points in the Brisbane International final.

That was Henin’s first tournament since she quit while holding the No. 1 ranking in May 2008. In what had shaped as a Belgian quarter, Henin set up a fourth-round against Yanina Wickmayer.

Wickmayer, who is ranked No. 16 but unseeded because she was under a suspension — since overturned — for breaching the World Anti-Doping Agency’s "whereabouts rule" when direct entries closed for the Australian Open — advanced 6-1, 6-7 (4), 6-3 over Sara Errani. She needed painkillers for back pain against Errani and said she’d need treatment before facing Henin.

Now the winner of that match will play Petrova.

In other matches, second-seeded Dinara Safina had a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Britain’s Elena Baltacha and next will play fellow Russian Maria Kirilenko, who beat Italian Roberta Vinci 7-5, 7-6 (4). Kirilenko ousted 2008 champion Maria Sharapova in the opening round.

"I think Sharapova hits it harder than Safina, so I am prepared for sure," Kirilenko said.

Former No. 1 Jelena Jankovic was upset 6-2, 6-3 by No. 31 Alona Bondarenko, while China’s Zheng Jie upset 2007 Wimbledon finalist Marion Bartoli of France 5-7, 6-3, 6-0.

On the men’s side, U.S. Open champion Juan Martin del Potro had a 6-3, 0-6, 6-4, 7-5 win over Florian Mayer, then crossed himself, kissed his finger and reached for the sky.

"The crowd helped me a lot to give fight. I wanted to be alive a few more days here in Melbourne," said the 21-year-old Argentine, who is a reigning major champion for the first time.

Del Potro lost the Roger Federer in the quarterfinals here last year, but avenged that by beating the 15-time Grand Slam winner in the U.S. Open final in September.

Asked if he felt any different this time around, del Potro laughed, held open his arms and said: "I feel bigger!"

"My life hasn’t changed too much," he said. "Of course, it’s beautiful, you get up, see the trophy of the U.S. Open. But you want more."

If he wins in the fourth round, he could meet former No. 1-ranked Andy Roddick in the quarterfinals.

Seventh-seeded Roddick was challenged all the way in a 6-7 (4), 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 (3) win over Feliciano Lopez and will play 2007 runner-up Fernando Gonzalez of Chile, who was backed by a noisy Chilean contingent in stifling conditions on Showcourt 2 as he beat Kazakhstan’s Evgeny Korolev 6-7 (5), 6-3, 1-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Britain’s Andy Murray had a 7-5, 6-1, 6-4 win over Florent Serra of France and will now play American John Isner, who fired 26 aces and hit 73 winners in a 6-1, 4-6, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5) victory over No. 12 Gael Monfils of France.

On paper, it was an upset, although 24-year-old Isner — who was given the last seeding for the tournament after Frenchman Gilles Simon withdrew — went into the match 2-1 against Monfils.

The winner of the Murray-Isner match is likely to face defending champion Rafael Nadal in the quarterfinals. Nadal had a night match Friday against Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany.

Thursday

Royal gathering: British prince and king of tennis

MELBOURNE, Australia — The king of tennis met the British prince.

Roger Federer had just dismissed another of his subjects — a 6-2, 6-3, 6-2 victory over Romania’s Victor Hanescu at the Australian Open — before greeting Prince William.

Federer is no stranger to royalty, having collected the Wimbledon trophy six times on London’s grass courts. But this was his first meeting with William, second in line to the British throne.

After Federer dispatched Hanescu in 99 minutes on Thursday, on-court interviewer Jim Courier invited the top-ranked Swiss to acknowledge the rare visit to Melbourne by a high-ranking royal.

"Your Royal Highness, welcome to the world of tennis," Federer said. "Thanks for coming."

Prince William duly blushed and waved. The pair shook hands — five wins before Federer usually mixes with royalty on the final Sunday of a major.

"Chit-chat? no," Federer said. "English breakfast tea? No, not yet."

"Of course, where he comes from, you know, he knows tennis. And Wimbledon’s big," Federer added. "So for me it was very a big honor that he came to watch me. He said he was happy that I played a little bit longer because the match could have ended even shorter."

Federer went back to his hotel and now awaits a third-round match against No. 31-ranked Albert Montanes of Spain. The prince resumed his duties on his brief tour to New Zealand and Australia.

"I think he’s had a very busy schedule the last few days," Federer said. "He shook a lot of hands, and I knew mine was one more. From what I’ve heard, I think he met Serena and myself, and came to watch my match."

The Williams sisters moved a step closer to a semifinal meeting with straight-set wins in back-to-back matches at Hisense Arena, the second covered court.

Venus went first and beat Sybille Bammer 6-2, 7-5, already improving on a 2009 campaign that ended in a second-round loss to Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro.

Serena defeated Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic 6-2, 6-1 to set up a match with Navarro in the third round. Williams is trying to break a trend: She has won the Australian title each odd-numbered year since 2003, when she beat her sister in the final.

"I feel if I play well, I can beat anybody," said Serena, who is planning some research on Suarez Navarro. "I know she took out Venus around this time last year, if I’m not mistaken.

"I would hate to see it become a habit for her, taking out a sister this time every year. So I have to be ready. Yeah, definitely will talk to (Venus) and see what goes next."

U.S. Open finalist Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark was among the other women advancing. She’ll meet No. 29 Shahar Peer of Israel in the next round. Ana Ivanovic, the 2008 Australian Open finalist and French Open champion, lost to Argentina’s Gisela Dulko.

No. 2 Dinara Safina, who lost last year’s final at Melbourne Park, plays Friday, as do Belgian comeback players Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin.

Defending men’s champion Nadal has a night match against Philipp Kohschreiber. No. 5 Andy Murray and No. 7 Andy Roddick play during the day.

Most of the leading men in the top half the draw progressed in straight sets. Novak Djokovic, the 2008 champion, had a slow start in his 3-6, 6-1, 6-1, 6-3 win over Marco Chiudinelli of Switzerland.

No. 9 Fernando Verdasco, a semifinalist last year, advanced 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 over Ivan Sergeyev of Ukraine, and 2008 finalist Jo-Wilfried Tsonga had a 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 win over American Taylor Dent.

Sixth-seeded Nikolay Davydenko had a 6-3, 6-3, 6-0 win over Ukraine qualifier Illya Marchenko, extending his winning streak to 11, including victories over Federer and Nadal in the 2009 World Tour Final in London and in Doha this month.

Marcos Baghdatis, the 2006 finalist, held on to beat No. 17 David Ferrer 4-6, 3-6, 7-6 (4), 6-3, 6-1 to set up a third-round match against former No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt, who beat American Donald Young 7-6 (3), 6-4, 6-1.

Hewitt won their last match at Melbourne Park, in the same round in 2008, which didn’t start until just before midnight and finished at 4:34 a.m. That’s a time Hewitt and Federer, both dads, might already be familiar with.

Federer learned at last year’s Australian Open that Mirka, his longtime girlfriend and now wife, was expecting twins. It might have fed the emotions that ended in his sobbing when he lost the 2009 final in five sets to Nadal.

"First of all we found out here in Australia it was going to be twins," Federer said. "It was a bit of a shocker again. ... It was a very intense phase, all the way from here to after Wimbledon."

After missing his chance in Australia to match Pete Sampras’ record of 14 Grand Slam singles titles, Federer equaled the record with his first major on the clay at Roland Garros and then earned his 15th on Wimbledon’s lawn, making him the undisputed king of tennis.

Then the twin daughters were born, and Federer lost the U.S. Open final to Juan Martin del Potro — his first major as a father. Now he’s more familiar with traveling the world with his family, which keeps it all real. And much less regal.

"Yeah, I’ve done it before," he said, referring to diaper changing. "I will probably do it again, tonight maybe."

-- John Pye

Ivanovic working on improving mental game

MELBOURNE, Australia — Ana Ivanovic believes she is playing better now than two years ago.

That’s a strange statement from the woman who has slumped from No. 1 in the world in 2008 to No. 21 and who fell out in the second round of the Australian Open on Thursday.

The 22-year-old Ivanovic, who made the final here two years ago, said one of her problems is wasting mental energy on court rather than playing by instinct.

"I think I’m striking the ball better now than I did in 2008 or any previous years," she said after her 6-7 (6), 7-5, 6-4 loss to Argentina’s Gisela Dulko.

"Also, you know, my movement is getting there. It’s just that expectation that sometimes I put on myself, and it’s very overwhelming. I use so much energy," she said. "And then when it counts the most, I’m behind. So I just have to find that balance."

The Serbian was a rising star in 2007, runner-up at the French Open and a semifinalist at Wimbledon.

After losing the 2008 Australian Open final to Maria Sharapova, she made her Grand Slam breakthrough by winning the French Open, confirming her talent and enhancing glamorous image.

Ivanovic hasn’t made it past the fourth round of a Grand Slam since, and and did not win a tournament at all in 2009.

She went out in the third round of last year’s Australian Open, then later succumbed to her first-ever first-round loss at a major at the U.S. Open. She finished outside the top 20 after struggling late in the season with injuries.

"I had heaps of little injuries that constantly kept showing up, so I really couldn’t work consistently on anything," Ivanovic said, ruling a line under the 2009 season. "It was always a few days on court and then off the court."

Ivanovic wants to return to the top 10, and knows the loss to Dulko is a setback.

"It hurts, I must say, but it’s a process," she said. "I just have to be patient. It will take some time. I do feel better on the court. I feel like my old self. There are still some areas that are not there for me to rely on."

Dulko twice served for the match in the third set but Ivanovic rallied, breaking her twice to get back on serve at 5-4 down, needing to hold to stay in the match.

She couldn’t. Two double-faults in the last game didn’t help Ivanovic’s cause, and Dulko finally converted on her sixth match point.

Ivanovic said she needs to keep her focus when she’s playing well.

"I start well and I play good. I just go out there to enjoy," she said. "Then I think I can play like this all the time. Then I get tense and I start making mistakes because I want to play like that."

Ivanovic didn’t seem too upset by the loss, insisting she is improving her game even as she has become aware of the importance of relaxing off the court.

Between seasons, Ivanovic spent time in Australia with golfer Adam Scott, who has been ranked as high as No. 3 in the world but had a rough season in ‘09 before winning the Australian Open in December, ending a title drought.

Ivanovic was only half joking ahead of the tennis version of the Australian Open when she said she wanted to replicate that feat.

Before coming to Australia, she’d taken weeks off to spend time with family and friends in Belgrade, and investigate hobbies.

"I still have to find things that’s going to make me relax. I really like reading and watching movies but sometimes I spend too much time in the room; that’s not good either," she laughed. "Just find something, go for a walk, just to keep your mind off of tennis, surround yourself with positive people."

-- Tanalee Smith

Lleyton Hewitt advances to 3rd round of Aust. Open

MELBOURNE, Australia — That epic match in 2008, Lleyton Hewitt remembers it well.

It set a record just for starting — at 11:47 p.m. it was the latest start for a singles match in Australian Open history.

Five sets and nearly five hours later, it ended when Hewitt smacked a final forehand past Marcos Baghdatis at 4:34 a.m. — a record for the latest finish.

Two years later, Hewitt calls it the most memorable match of his career and he’s bracing for the rematch, which will come once again in the third round of the Australian Open.

"Hopefully, we’ll get done a little earlier than last time," Hewitt said after his straight sets second-round win Thursday over American Donald Young, 7-6 (3), 6-4, 6-1.

Young has some advice for Baghdatis about tuning out the boisterous, stadium-wide chanting in favor of Hewitt, an Australian and former No. 1-ranked player who is vying to become the first hometown champion since 1976.

"You just have to imagine they’re cheering for you," said Young, a 20-year-old qualifier. "Obviously, you know your name is not ‘Lleyton’ or ‘Hewitt’ and you’re not Australian but you’ve just got to take it and focus on playing your game."

After a close first set, Hewitt was down 2-4 in the second when he picked up his serve, gained momentum and cheered himself on with his trademark rallying cry of "COME ON!"

"My serve got better as the match went on, and that definitely put me in a better position to be a little bit more aggressive on his service games," said Hewitt, who won the 2001 U.S. Open, Wimbledon in 2002 and was runner-up in Melbourne in 2005. This year’s appearance marks the 28-year-old Australian’s 14th straight Australian Open.

Hewitt has a 128-42 win-loss record at majors, with top-seeded Roger Federer being the only active player to record more Grand Slam match wins (190-27).

Hewitt is bracing for his Saturday match against Baghdatis to be another prime-time evening match.

"I’m gathering that it will be Saturday night," said Hewitt, who has taken up residence in the Bahamas with his wife, Australian actress Bec Cartwright, and their two children. "It doesn’t worry me, day or night."

Lengthy discussion was paid Thursday to the topic of late-night matches, after fellow Australian Bernard Tomic complained that at 17 he’s too young to stay up late at night.

"I think it’s ridiculous," Tomic said after losing his second-round, five-setter to Croatia’s Marin Cilic 6-7 (6), 6-3, 4-6, 6-2, 6-4. Their match started at 10:20 p.m. and ended shortly after 2 a.m..

"Name me any sport you play at 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning, except this," he added, noting that he likes to be in bed before 10. "I think if I would have played during the day, I would have had a better chance."

Tournament director Craig Tiley summoned Tomic to speak about the outburst — which could result in a fine — but Tomic declined to discuss what was said.

"There were a few things mentioned. Nothing really that we can talk about now," Tomic said later.

He got little sympathy from Hewitt.

"If you get scheduled at night ... you’ve got to be prepared for that to happen," Hewitt said.

Baghdatis offered the same advice.

"That’s the way it is. We have to deal with it," Baghdatis said after surviving his own five-setter against No. 17-seeded David Ferrer, 4-6, 3-6, 7-6 (4), 6-3, 6-1.

"We don’t have to find excuses," said Baghdatis, the 2006 Australian Open runner-up. "We have to find a way to win every match we play, even if it’s in tough conditions. That’s all."

-- Jocelyn Gecker

Notebook: Dent’s loss at tennis is win at home with new baby

MELBOURNE, Australia — American Taylor Dent hates to lose, but at least this defeat solved a tricky dilemma.

His wife, former tennis pro Jennifer Hopkins, is due to have their first baby a week from Friday — or sooner.

"I’ll be on the phone to get flights as soon as I have a shower and get back to my hotel," Dent said after Thursday’s second-round loss at the Australian Open to No. 10 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. "She’s due in a week but the doctor says she’s due any second. She’s right there. She’s ready to go."

Dent said they are having a boy, who they’ve already decided to name Declan James Phillip Dent — Declan because they like the name, and the other two after each of their fathers.

"I’m not nervous at all," Dent said. "I’m excited, I’m a little giddy about it."

The 28-year-old is staging a comeback after three back operations starting in 2006 and the fear he’d never play tennis again. Last September he made it to the third round of the U.S. Open.

Once ranked No. 21, Dent is trying to improve his current No. 79 ranking and said thoughts of the impending birth did not distract him.

"I was out there to win, I was out there to compete hard," he said. "It just unfortunately didn’t go my way tonight."

Dent is the son of Australian Phil Dent, runner-up in the 1974 Australian Open, and Betty Ann Stuart, a former top 10 player in the United States.

He said he and his wife are as prepared as they can be to welcome their son, particularly Hopkins.

"She wants to have a litter," he laughed. "She wants to have four of them!"

A MIXED DOUBLES DREAM TEAM

If Andy Roddick isn’t interested in partnering her for mixed doubles at the 2012 Olympics, Serena Williams said she has a couple of tall brothers in mind to join her.

The International Olympic Committee in December approved the return of mixed doubles to the London Games. Mixed doubles was played at several Olympics from 1900 to 1924.

"I’m going to have to play a little mixed so I can get my body ready," she said. "Hopefully I’ll be chosen on the Olympic team. When that time gets closer, I’m going to play a little mixed. It’ll be fun. I’ll have a blast."

Williams said she and friend Roddick have talked about partnering but if he is out, she’s looking to Bob or Mike Bryan, twin brothers who are the No. 1 men’s doubles team.

"Are you kidding? I would love to play with one of them," she said Thursday, acknowledging she’d rather have them on her side than playing against them.

And as for her sister? Venus is already in discussions with one of them, Williams revealed.

LOOKING FOR SUPPORT

Donald Young was hailed as a "tennis phenom" when he turned pro at age 14 in 2004.

At the end of that year, Newsweek magazine named him as an American worth watching — in the same "Who’s Next" issue that profiled Sen. Barack Obama on its cover as a man with potential.

In 2005, Young won the Australian Open junior title. In 2007 he made it to the third round of the U.S. Open and — at 18 years, 5 months — he cracked the top 100 on the men’s tour.

But Young — who lost at the Australian Open on Thursday in the second round — has had a sporadic career and is now ranked No. 195. He says greater support from his country could help him excel.

He claimed before the U.S. Open that the U.S. Tennis Association was pressuring him to drop his parents as coaches.

He said Thursday he has not been in contact with the tennis body since then.

"Hopefully we can work together because I would love the support of USTA and hopefully we can come to mutual terms," he said. "We’ll see where it goes from there because obviously I feel like a lot of the great players who have come up or good ones have had the support of their country. So it would be nice to have it."

Young lost 7-6 (3), 6-4, 6-1 to former No. 1-ranked Lleyton Hewitt of Australia.

"I’m just focused on playing tennis and winning matches and trying to get better," he said. "Hopefully that comes into play and works also."

-- Tanalee Smith

Australian Open at a glance

MELBOURNE, Australia — A look at Thursday’s fourth day of the Australian Open tennis championships:

WEATHER: Sunny with a high of 83 degrees.

ATTENDANCE: Day: 43,650. Night: 19,891. Total: 63,541.

WINNERS: Men: No. 1 Roger Federer, No. 3 Novak Djokovic, No. 6 Nikolay Davydenko, No. 9 Fernando Verdasco, No. 10 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, No. 18 Tommy Haas, No. 20 Mikhail Youzhny, No. 22 Lleyton Hewitt, No. 26 Nicolas Almagro, No. 30 Juan Monaco, No. 31 Albert Montanes.

Women: No. 1 Serena Williams, No. 4 Caroline Wozniacki, No. 6 Venus Williams, No. 7 Victoria Azarenka, No. 9 Vera Zvonareva, No. 10 Agnieszka Radwanska, No. 13 Samantha Stosur, No. 16 Li Na, No. 17 Francesca Schiavone, No. 22 Daniela Hanutchova, No. 29 Shahar Peer, No. 32 Carla Suarez Navarro.

LOSERS: Men: No. 17 David Ferrer.

Women: No. 20 Ana Ivanovic, No. 21 Sabine Lisicki.

STAT OF THE DAY: 5. Number of Spanish men playing in the second round, the most of any country.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Your Royal Highness, welcome to the world of tennis. Thanks for coming." — Federer welcoming Prince William, second in line to the British throne, who was a spectator Thursday evening.

On Court Friday: No. 2 Rafael Nadal vs. Philipp Kohlschreiber; No. 4 Juan Martin del Potro vs. Florian Mayer; No. 5 Andy Murray vs. Florent Serra; No. 7 Andy Roddick vs. Feliciano Lopez; No. 12 Gael Monfils vs. No. 33 John Isner. No. 2 Dinara Safina vs. Elena Baltacha; No. 3 Svetlana Kuznetsova vs. Angelique Kerber; No. 8 Jelena Jankovic vs. No. 31 Alona Bondarenko; No. 15 Kim Clijsters vs. No. 19 Nadia Petrova; No. 27 Alisa Kleybanova vs. Justine Henin.

Friday’s Forecast: Partly cloudy with a chance of thunderstorms in the evening. High of 97 degrees.

Commentary: Davis Cup must not go the way of the dodo

PARIS — It hasn’t been pretty watching tennis’ top players gang up against the venerable Davis Cup.

Too outdated, too taxing, too inconvenient, they are saying of the 110-year-old competition that has given fans some of their dearest tennis memories. Who can forget a shirt-sleeved Boris Yeltsin abandoning his VIP seat to hug the Russian team that beat the French on home clay in 2002?

If they all line up behind whacky proposals for a soccer-style World Cup of tennis, an idea that could send the Davis Cup the way of the dodo, the sport’s big guns risk being selfish. Because for small tennis nations and for players without wealthy sponsors and bulging bank accounts, competing for the trophy that Dwight Davis commissioned more than a century ago is often the highlight of their year, even their whole careers.

Says Des Allen, the CEO of Irish tennis: "For a country like Ireland, big-time tennis is Davis Cup."

That’s not to say that the World Cup concept being hawked by an Australian sports marketing firm should be dismissed out of hand. Some of its proposals — like cutting down on the dead time in matches by forcing players to take no longer than 25 seconds between points — are funky and refreshing and should please television executives who like tennis in bite-sized, easily scheduled chunks.

Bringing 32 national teams together for a 10-day competition could, as the World Cup does for soccer, also attract fans by appealing to their fly-the-flag instincts. And more fans could mean more money.

But a World Cup would have to be good for everyone in tennis, not just those at the top of the game who say that it’s a struggle to fit Davis Cup into their hectic globe-trotting and lucrative schedules.

Like Davis Cup, a World Cup would have to spread money around, helping to finance the sport’s survival and growth in places like Africa. Like Davis Cup, a World Cup should take tennis to far-flung outposts that otherwise don’t get to see top-level players in action. Like Davis Cup, it must be all-inclusive, accommodating not only the Roger Federers of this world but also tennis minnows like Domenico Vicini.

When he’s not running a campsite in northern Italy, where he also doubles as a tennis instructor, Vicini plays Davis Cup for the micro-state of San Marino, population 30,000. Vicini has played in more ties — 78 and counting — than anyone in Davis Cup history, and has won the majority of his singles matches.

"The emotions one feels in the Davis Cup are unmatched by any other tournament," Vicini told The Associated Press this week. "If you care about your nation, your flag, then it’s the best.

"It’s what kept me going."

Asked what he thought of the proposals for a World Cup, he added simply: "It would be good if all could take part."

Exactly.

World Cup promoters say it’s not their intention to kill off the Davis Cup. But that could be the result if top players abandon the tournament in favor of the new concept.

Already, the top-ranked Federer says he won’t play in the Davis Cup against defending champion Spain in March because it doesn’t fit with his other commitments. Fourth-ranked Andy Murray is skipping Britain’s matchup against Lithuania. The United States will be without No. 7 Andy Roddick this year because he wants to spare his gimpy left knee.

"Maybe (Davis Cup) was perfect 20 or 30 years ago but now it is really too much for us," said Croatian player Ivan Ljubicic, ranked 24th. "It takes a lot of your time."

Thankfully, the International Tennis Federation, which runs Davis Cup, won’t let it die without a fight.

ITF vice president Juan Margets, who chairs the Davis Cup committee, notes that the vast majority of top 20 players agreed as recently as two years ago to the competition’s current schedule and format. He is deeply skeptical that room could be made in the already packed tennis calendar for a World Cup held every two years.

"We don’t believe in events that are not annual," Margets told the AP. "We have to go out and defend the Davis Cup."

The players, the ITF and the ATP tour are going to have to sit down and work this one out. But for a World Cup to make any sense, it will need to be at least as good for tennis as the Davis Cup has been — and that is a pretty tall order.

Most importantly, it must not cut out those lower down the tennis food chain.

Said Allen: "In all of these issues, it’s the small guy that often has to make the sacrifice."

John Leicester is an international sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at jleicester@ap.org.