Robby Ginepri won’t be part of Davis Cup team, coach says

By Harvey Fialkov
Sun-Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted January 30 2006, 9:12 PM EST

DELRAY BEACH — Although the United States Davis Cup team won’t be officially announced until today, Robby Ginepri, the second seed at the Delray Beach International Tennis Championships, is the odd man out according to his coach Francisco Montana.

Ginepri, ranked 16th in the world, is the third highest-ranked American behind No. 7 Andre Agassi and No. 3 Andy Roddick. He was informed by Davis Cup captain Patrick McEnroe that 20th-ranked James Blake will be the second singles player chosen along with Roddick for the upcoming first-round matchup against Romania in La Jolla, Calif., Feb. 10-12.

Bob and Mike Bryan, the reigning Australian Open doubles champions, fill out the American squad.

“Obviously, Robby wanted to play but it was not in his control,'’ Montana said Monday. “He’ll remain positive and focused on doing well at Delray and the tournaments ahead.

“Patrick saw that James won five straight matches at Sydney in January and started the year sharper than Robby. Hopefully, he’ll get the call next time.'’

Blake has started the year off hotter than Ginepri (1-2), winning Sydney, a lead-in tournament to the Australian Open, for his fourth career ATP title.

Agassi said he told McEnroe that because of his long layoff while recovering from ankle injury, that he would rather pass on the first round of Davis Cup, but would welcome an invitation to the next round in early April. He is 30-6 in Davis Cup matches.