But he has lost Todd Martin, who has been struggling with a viral infection.”Losing Todd was a complication: to lose Pete as well means I’m put in the middle of a selection crisis,” McEnroe wrote.He said Jim Courier has a excellent Davis Cup record, but lost in the first round of the Australian Open and isn’t playing with confidence these days. “To tell the truth, I don’t think Pete really wanted to make the trip in the first place.”"Would he have been with the team if he’d won that fourth-set tiebreaker against Agassi?”Agassi is on McEnroe’s team for the Harare duel. “It’s a little bit harder for me to move on there, so, and girls get balls back a little bit easier on the clay, but it’s going to be fun.”I never thought I’d be in the position to try and win all four majors.”—TOP TURNOUTFor the first time ever, Australian Open officials are about to record more than half a million spectators at their two-week event.In 1999, 473,296 people watched the tennis at Melbourne Park. Sampras announced his withdrawal Friday after taking medical advice.”It was distressing and real tough to swallow, but it was not entirely unexpected,” McEnroe, the U.S Davis Cup captain, wrote in a syndicated newspaper column.

So far, 485,266 people have cheered the players, including a full house of 15,413 on center court for the women’s final Saturday.The turnout for the men’s final Sunday between Andre Agassi and Yevgeny Kafelnikov is expected to push attendance past the 500,000 mark.—ANXIOUS MACJohn McEnroe is distressed, to put it lightly, by Pete Sampras’ withdrawal from the Davis Cup contest next month between the United States and Zimbabwe.Sampras pulled out because of a hip injury that he sustained during his semifinal loss Thursday to Andre Agassi in the Australian Open. But Davenport, who reached the semi-finals at Roland Garros in 1998, said she needs to improve on clay.”Clay is just a little bit tougher for me,” she said. On Saturday, she added the Australian Open title to her collection by defeating Martina Hingis.
Now the only one of the four most prestigious tournaments in tennis that she has yet to win is the French Open. On Saturday, she added the Australian Open title to her collection by defeating Martina Hingis

Lindsay Davenport won the US Open in 1998 Last year, she triumphed at Wimbledon. Lindsay Davenport won the US Open in 1998 Last year, she triumphed at Wimbledon. The last set took 173 minutes.Playing in red-and-white Hawaiian-style shorts more synonymous with a beach volleyball court than on a tennis court, Leach and his 29-year-old partner remained cool under pressure throughout the 261 minute match.After splitting the breaks in the first four sets, the fifth went with serve until the last game.Leach and Ferreira won the opening set when Black sent a backhand return wide on set point.Kratzmann and Black broke Ferreira’s serve to go 3-1 in the second and held on until the Australian closed out, winning his serve to love.The Leach-Ferreira combination regained control early in the third, breaking Kratzmann’s opening serve for a 2-0 lead and then saving two break back chances to regain a one-set advantage.In almost a repeat of the second, Kratzmann and Black hit back to win the fourth, breaking Ferreira’s serve to lead 3-1 and holding to level the match at two sets apiece.The No 5 seeded Leach and Ferreira advanced to the final after fighting back from 1-4 in the third to edge veteran Australian duo Mark Woodforde and Todd Woodbridge 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the semi-finals.Kratzmann and Black, seeded No 8, defeated Lleyton Hewitt and Sandon Stolle, Australia’s likely Davis Cup combination, in the third round and accounted for American doubles pair Alex O’Brien and Jared Palmer in the semis.At his peak, Leach combined with Pugh to win back-to-back Australian Open doubles titls won at least one doubles title per year for the last 13 years but hadn’t won a Grand Slam since partnering Ken Flach to win at the US Open in 1993.Leach teamed with Ferreira to win in Auckland earlier this month, at Rome last year and at Key Biscayne in 1998 but this is their first Grand Slam final together.Australian Open, MelbourneWomen’s singles final (prefix number denotes seed):(2) LINDSAY DAVENPORT (US) bt (1) MARTINA HINGIS (Swi) 6-1 7-5Men’s Doubles Final(5) ELLIS FERREIRA (SA) and RICK LEACH (US) bt (8) Andrew Kratzman (Aus) and Wayne Black (Zim) 6-4 3-6 6-3 3-6 18-16Mixed doubles’ semi-final(4) TODD WOODBRIDGE (Aus) & ARANTXA SANCHEZ-VICARIO (Sp) bt D Adams (SA) & K Boogert (Ned) 6-3 6-3.

A tired Kratzmann skewed a backhand wide to surrender the deciding set after 121 minutes.Leach has a link with an all-time record for the most number of games played in a doubles set, his father Dick Leach teaming with Dick Dell in 1967 to defeat Len Schloss and Tom Mozur 3-6, 49-47, 22-20 at Newport Rhode Island.”Last December I talked to my wife about quitting tennis, I’m glad I continued,” Leach said before making reference to his father’s record. “He’s taught me everything I know.”The longest doubles final at the Australian Open to date was in 1990 when Peter Aldrich and Danie Visser, South Africa, defeated Scott Davis and Robert Van’t Hof 6-4, 4-6, 7-6, 4-6, 23-21 in 329 minutes. Rick Leach won his third Australian Open doubles title more than a decade after winning his second, combining with Ellis Ferreira to edge Andrew Kratzmann and Wayne Black in a grueling five set final today.
Leach, who teamed with Jim Pugh to win successive doubles titles Down Under in 1988 and ‘89, completed his fifth Grand Slam doubles title while his South African partner collected his first with the 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 3-6, 18-16 triumph.The 35-year-old American survived two break points at 9-9 but then all the pressure was on Kratzmann of Australia and Black of Zimbabwe, both playing in their first Grand Slam final.Trailing 12-13, Kratzmann fired five successive faults to give his rivals a match point on a second serve but survived to level the scores at 13-13.The Australian also saved two match points to level at 15-15 but his luck ran out at 17-16, when he let a 40-15 lead slip.He double faulted at 40-30 and then Ferreira hit a winning forehand volley to bring up the fourth match point. Rick Leach won his third Australian Open doubles title more than a decade after winning his second, combining with Ellis Ferreira to edge Andrew Kratzmann and Wayne Black in a grueling five set final today. The full internationals will be in Pretoria on 17 June and Bloemfontein a week later, and there will be provincial games against North West Districts, Griqualand West and Gauteng Falcons. Woodward intends to take 40 players, including a batch of youngsters.. The coach could yet regret not waiting for Phil de Glanville to prove his fitness in Bath this afternoon.Another hardened international practitioner from the West Country, the Bath hooker Mark Regan, is making a late challenge for a front-row berth, although Phil Greening’s impressive showing during the World Cup virtually guarantees him the dubious pleasure of confronting Keith Wood next weekend.There is a place too for Andy Gomarsall, the Bedford scrum-half, who is promoted as a direct result of long-term injuries to Bracken and Martyn Wood.Meanwhile, the Rugby Football Union yesterday confirmed details of England’s two-Test trip to South Africa this summer.

In Johnson’s absence, Matt Dawson will lead the side from scrum-half.Mike Tindall is the only specialist outside centre in the party, so a first cap is his for the taking. The rest of the midfield is up in the air: if Woodward plays Jonny Wilkinson in his preferred position of outside-half, Greenwood is likely to go straight from the Leicester bench to the England hot seat of inside centre. Two uncapped wings, Iain Balshaw of Bath and Ben Cohen of Northampton, are competing for one place – Cohen is a marginal ante-post favourite – while Rodber, Garath Archer and Simon Shaw are chasing the lock positions vacated by Johnson, who finally gave best to his inflamed Achilles tendon yesterday, and Grewcock. “Liam’s inclusion in the A squad will obviously receive a lot of attention,” he said of Beefy Junior, who rejected a tempting offer from the Wales coach, Graham Henry, earlier this week. “But he simply wants to ignore the hype and get on with the job.” Fat chance.By putting 26 players in the Six Nations frame, Woodward has again delayed making the really tough calls.

“I’m looking forward to seeing David play a full game for the A team on Friday night,” said the coach yesterday. “He is pushing very hard for a place in the Six Nations squad and we’ll be watching him closely.” Woodward also made special mention, for different reasons, of Liam Botham, the Cardiff wing. It is suffice to say that the entire Gloucester front row comprehensively out-muscled by the formidable 20-year-old at Saracens last Tuesday night are in the full squad.At least Woodward gave Flatman a mention in dispatches. Some of the most exciting young talents in the country, from Alex King and Steve Hanley in the backs to David Flatman and Will Green in the front row, have been palmed off with a place in the second-string “A” party. Quite how Flatman, in particular, has missed out on senior selection is a mystery.