Tennis: Swiss captain accuses US of 'verbal abuse'

JOHN McENROE, Jim Courier and Andre Agassi were verbally abusive towards their opponents in last month's Davis Cup final, Dimitri Strudza, the Romanian-born captain of the beaten Switzerland team, claimed yesterday.

Sturdza confirmed that he had made an official complaint to the match referees and to the American captain, Tom Gorman, citing the behaviour of McEnroe and Agassi in particular.

'McEnroe is a genius and God has given him so much,' Sturdza conceded. 'But he has balanced things by not blessing him with elementary good behaviour. He abused my players and myself. He was sitting near me during one match and for no reason looked across and mouthed a disgusting obscenity at me. Agassi was not much better and several times abused my players. I have put down an official complaint against them, and also against Jim Courier for a vile and obscene gesture he made to one of my players.'

Sturdza, it seems, has little need to worry about any repetition from McEnroe, who has informed Gorman that he has no further wish to play in the world's premier team competition.

The Swiss experience in Texas, Sturdza concluded, 'was not sport'. Not that he has lost faith. 'We play India in our first Davis Cup match this year in Calcutta in March and I am sure that will be very different and a much more pleasant experience.'