McEnroe quits as US Davis Cup captain

NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 21: John McEnroe, the most successful United States player in Davis Cup history, has quit after only one year as captai...

NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 21: John McEnroe, the most successful United States player in Davis Cup history, has quit after only one year as captain of the US Davis Cup tennis team, citing acirc;euro;tilde;acirc;euro;tilde;difficulties of the scheduling and format.acirc;euro;trade;acirc;euro;trade;

The US Tennis Association begins a search for areplacement after the former acirc;euro;tilde;acirc;euro;tilde;bad boyacirc;euro;trade;acirc;euro;trade; of tennis, who replaced Tom Gullikson as captain in September of last year, had the shortest captaincy since Alphonso Smithacirc;euro;trade;s one-tie reign in 1963.

acirc;euro;tilde;acirc;euro;tilde;I was privileged to have been selected and honoured to have served as captain of the United States Davis Cup team,acirc;euro;trade;acirc;euro;trade; McEnroe said while announcing his retirement yesterday.

acirc;euro;tilde;acirc;euro;tilde;Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, I was disappointed that I was unable to have a greater impact as captain of the team. Nonetheless my thanks go to the USTA and I thank the players who participated on this yearacirc;euro;trade;s team.acirc;euro;trade;acirc;euro;trade;

McEnroeacirc;euro;trade;s year as captain was marked by his inability to have Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras available to play Davis Cup for most of the year.

acirc;euro;tilde;acirc;euro;tilde;Changes need to be made in the Davis Cup scheduling and format,acirc;euro;trade;acirc;euro;trade; McEnroe said. acirc;euro;tilde;acirc;euro;tilde;I have made it known for many years the current format is problematic for the worldacirc;euro;trade;s top players. I am proud to have been associated with Davis Cup for more than two decades and it is my hope that Davis Cup will be restructured so that it can be everything I envision it has the potential to be.acirc;euro;trade;acirc;euro;trade;

In addition, Davis Cup stalwart Jim Courier retired and Todd Martin was injured for the early part of the season. Courier and Brad Gilbert, Agassiacirc;euro;trade;s coach, have been among those mentioned as possible McEnroe successors.

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Despite the lack of big-name players, McEnroe managed to guide his team to the semi-finals, edging host Zimbabwe in Round One and having Sampras lead a quarter-final victory over the Czech Republic in Los Angeles.

But McEnroe did not have Agassi and Sampras for the semi-finals against Spain in July. Agassi suffered a back injury in a car accident coming home from the airport after Wimbledon and Sampras decided that it did not fit his plans.

McEnroe named himself to play in the semi-finals before pulling back and a team of Martin, Chris Woodruff, Jan-Michael Gambill and Vincent Spadea was swept by Spain 5-0.

Named to his first Cup squad at age 19 in 1978, McEnroe compiled a 59-10 record in 30 ties over 12 years and played on Cup-winning teams in 1978, 1979, 1981, 1982 and 1992. He holds American Davis Cup records for wins, ties played, years played and singles wins 41.