BRYAN BROTHERS UP AGAINST U.S. HISTORY IN DAVIS CUP DEBUT

U.S. Davis Cup fans will be keeping their fingers and toes crossed this weekend, hoping for something that hasn't happened in almost 15 years -- the establishment of a regular, winning doubles-specialist tandem for the U.S. team.

Up until the 1990s, the U.S. Davis Cup team had a rich doubles-specialist history harking all the way back to the beginning of the Open Era (1968). In those heady days when tennis finally grew up and opened it's doors to all professionals, Bob Lutz and Stan Smith became the first doubles-specialist team to lead the U.S. charge, winning the first Open Era Davis Cup title in 1968, and the first of five consecutive titles for the U.S.

Competing beside singles players Arthur Ashe and Clark Graebner, the duo of Lutz-Smith posted a perfect 4-0 record in '68, and went on to record a 13-1 career U.S. Davis Cup doubles record, thus not only inaugurating the era of open tennis, but that of the U.S. doubles-only specialists.

That era continued strong into the '70s, mainly on the shoulders of Lutz-Smith, and in 1979 handed off to a young upstart pair by the names of Peter Fleming and John McEnroe. U.S. Davis Cup doubles posted an overall record through the '70s of 22-6 in doubles, including five titles in 1970-72, and '78-79.

Just when fans thought things couldn't get any better, the 1980s turned out to be the Golden Era for U.S. Davis Cup doubles. Fleming and McEnroe took over the doubles duties full-time in 1981, leading the U.S. to consecutive Davis Cup titles in 1981-82, and during their career posting an all-time U.S. best 14-1 record. The pair resigned their position in 1984 after their only loss in the final to Sweden, falling to another legendary team in Stefan Edberg and Anders Jarryd on red clay.

Fleming and McEnroe stepping aside was a huge loss for the U.S. team, but an opportunity for a wild young pair who had steadily been collecting tour titles by the names of Ken Flach and Robert Seguso. The duo had played together in college, and found their aggressive style ripe for picking off professional titles, all the while waiting for their shot to represent the U.S. Once given, Flach-Seguso instantly picked up where Fleming-McEnroe left off, practically guaranteeing the all-important Saturday doubles point sandwiched between the Friday and Sunday singles.

Unfortunately, while posting an impressive 10-1 career mark over five years, Flach-Seguso never experienced the joy of raising the Davis Cup, as they were always supporting a struggling cast of singles players in Eliot Teltscher, Aaron Krickstein, Jimmy Arias, Tim Mayotte, Brad Gilbert, Jay Berger, and adolescents Andre Agassi and Michael Chang, who were far from their dominating Davis Cup years. Like Fleming-McEnroe, the pairing of Flach-Seguso had their Davis Cup swan song in their only loss, in 1989 in the semifinals against Germany, coming up short in two tiebreaks and four sets against the accomplished team of Boris Becker and Eric Jelen.

One loss can turn the tide on the U.S. Davis Cup team, and the 1989 semifinal loss to Germany was the impetus for change. The year 1990 saw a new U.S. team in the successful tour pairing of Rick Leach and Jim Pugh, who had already seen a great deal of tour success and were waiting for Flach-Seguso to falter for their shot at Davis Cup glory. It didn't take long, as Leach-Pugh won all four of their matches in 1990 to lead the U.S., along with Andre Agassi and Michael Chang doing the brunt of the singles work, to the first U.S. Davis Cup title in eight years. But the Leach-Pugh era was short-lived, as the two paired twice the following year before Pugh succumbed to injury. That year the U.S. reached the final in defense of their title, but stand-ins Flach-Seguso were not up to the task against veterans Guy Forget and Henri Leconte, and U.S. rookie Pete Sampras posted an 0-2 record in his first two singles appearances.

That loss in the 1991 final was, for all intent and purpose, the end of the dominating U.S. Davis Cup doubles era.

After the glorious '80s when U.S. David Cup doubles pairings posted a 25-3 record, the '90s were a mishmash of mostly unsuccessful pairings of individual doubles specialists who did not play with each other regularly on tour. The precedent for throwing together teams was set with success in 1992, when the U.S. ran all the way to the title with Leach-McEnroe in the doubles spot, and then the superstar pairing of Sampras-McEnroe in the semifinals and final. Unbeknownst to the Americans, that win would be the beginning of the lean years for U.S. Davis Cup doubles.

In the eight-year period from 1995-2002, 28 U.S. Davis Cup matches were played, contested by an amazing 23 different combinations. Talk about lean. The lowlights included Jonathan Stark, who went 0-4 with three different partners; Alex O'Brien, who posted a 1-3 record in four consecutive matches with four different partners; Justin Gimelstob and Jan-Michael Gambill, both 0-2 with two different partners; Jared Palmer, 2-4 with four different partners; and stalwart Todd Martin, who lost seven of 10 matches with seven different partners. Ouch.

The year 2000 was a hopeful new beginning, until the U.S. lost its first five matches with the pairings of Leach-O'Brien, Palmer-O'Brien, Gambill-Martin, Gambill-Gimelstob (who was smoking what with that choice?), and Don Johnson-Palmer. The saga of Johnson-Palmer mirrors the unforgiving quality of U.S. Davis Cup doubles over the years for specialist pairings. The duo were tearing up the ATP circuit and begging captain Patrick McEnroe for a shot after bearing witness to four consecutive thrown-together losses. Captain Mac finally relented, and Johnson-Palmer made their debut against India and one of all-time great pairings in D-Cup history in Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes, one of the few teams to reach all four slam finals. To make a long story short, the Indians triumphed, and Pat Mac essentially told Johnson-Palmer "Thanks for coming, don't call me, I'll call you." Brutal.

Now Bob and Mike Bryan step into that brutal U.S. Davis Cup spotlight where you win and you're in, but once you post a loss, there is always a team (or in the case of the U.S., thrown-together individuals) waiting to take your place.

Captain Pat Mac, a doubles specialist back in the day who was 2-0 in U.S. D-Cup doubles, has been reluctant to take on a doubles-only pairing, and has himself contributed to throwing together players in an effort to come up with a winning combination over the last couple years. Last year that combination included James Blake and Martin (2-0), or Blake and Mardy Fish (2-1). Throughout 2002 the Bryan brothers told Captain Mac of their intentions, but the captain would not relent until the boys made a major impact on tour.

"I've always said if the Bryan brothers go and win Wimbledon and win the US Open and, to me, are a dominant doubles team, I'm going to give them even more consideration," said Patrick McEnroe this past April. "I give them consideration now, but they're not a dominant doubles team. That's just the bottom line. They're a very good doubles team. They're doing well, they win matches every week. They don't dominate. To me, if there's a dominant team out there, whether it's the Bryans or whether it's anybody else, if they're not dominating and winning a major or two a year, it's too big a risk to take if they can't play singles. They know the story. I love the Bryans. I think they're great kids. I think they've got a lot of spunk and they've got good game, and I think they've improved. But they're not dominating the doubles tour."

But that all changed a couple months ago at the French Open, where the brothers won their first major title, then really put the full-court press on Captain Mac. The Bryans had struggled somewhat on clay prior to the red dirt season, so this year they watched videos and worked on developing the necessary short angles required of claycourt doubles.

"It took us two to three years to start learning," Mike said. "We went through the claycourt patterns and everything."

After the brothers raised the Roland Garros trophy, Captain Mac finally relented, and the brothers will realize a life-long dream this weekend when they step on the court against the Slovaks. Adding to the intense pressure will be the fact that Blake-Fish posted a win last year over the Slovak team in the first round of World Group play, and a loss could end their Davis Cup career at 0-1.

"We are really excited to play Davis Cup," Bob said. "It’s a big goal of ours. We’ve played on a lot of teams before. We played for Stanford so we are comfortable with the team format and we are excited to play for our country and for these guys." Brother Mike has been scouting out the competition while the two teams have been training this week.

"We are not sure (who we're playing)," added Mike. "I saw (Dominik) Hrbaty and (Karol) Kucera practicing yesterday so I’m expecting them to play, but I know (Karol) Beck is a pretty good doubles player too. We are not quite sure, but we are going to be ready on Saturday."

You do that boys -- we're sure Pat Mac will be the first to tell you on Saturday, "Hey fellas, no pressure."