On Sunday, the United States Davis Cup team meets Switzerland in the final two matches of their first-round tie. In a weirdly wonderful coincidence -- as long as you aren't a card-carrying member of the USTA -- Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi, the leading lights of American tennis, will be featured on "The Simpsons" that same night.

	Andre Agassi's reluctance to play in the Davis Cup's current format, along with other top players, contributed to McEnroe's decision to quit as Davis Cup captain.

Sampras and Agassi, in voice anyway, will vie with Venus and Serena Williams for the chance to play with Homer Simpson in a charity tennis tournament with Krusty the Klown as host.

John McEnroe, the outgoing U.S. Davis Cup captain who happens to be the brother of the incoming captain, laughed out loud when he heard the news on Wednesday.

"That is sort of ironic, or humorous," he said. "I didn't realize that was the case.

"I think I'm speechless."

That, of course, would be a first.

There is an undeniably cartoonish, first-time quality to the U.S. Davis Cup team's presence in Basel, Switzerland. The first singles match at St. Jakobshalle will be televised live at 8 a.m. ET Friday on ESPN2.

The entire premise of Patrick McEnroe's captaincy has been retrenchment. He is the kinder, gentler version of the previous captain, his tempestuous brother John.

Format unlikely to change

While Davis Cup has been criticized by the players for starting too early in February, ending too late in December and competing with the Olympics, the International Tennis Federation said Wednesday it has no plans to change the format. An ITF official insisted that "it's not broken" and that it wouldn't bow to pressure just because the Americans are having difficulty getting their stars to play. John McEnroe responded that it is ridiculous to say that it is only an American problem, specifically citing that the Italians also are having trouble getting their top players. Andre Agassi also expressed dissatisfaction with the decision. "I believe that if golf had The Ryder Cup four times a year, after every Grand Slam, that you would see a lot of players that would struggle with playing," Agassi said Wednesday. "Americans are not the only ones that struggle getting players by any stretch of the imagination." Agassi said that the format could be changed into something that would not only help the players but also would allow the public to understand the event better. He suggested holding the Davis Cup every other year with a top group of six to eight teams that would play for a two-week period in the defending champion's home country. Countries still would have to qualify for the two-week event by playing in ties year-round. -- Cynthia Faulkner

"It is a transition time," Patrick said in a conference call last week. "We need to start looking forward to the future and we need to start doing it now. My feeling is that the future is now. And why not get these guys in the mix?"

The word diplomat comes up a lot, a label that has never, ever been applied to John, who won seven Grand Slam singles titles -- seven more than his younger brother. Patience is the virtue that the USTA saw in Patrick. The organization understands the good old days of the 1990s, when the U.S. reached the Davis Cup finals four times in six years between 1990-95 and won three titles, are no more.

Both Sampras, 29, and Agassi, 30, say they have paid their Davis Cup dues and toward their end of their careers are focusing their energy on winning a few more Grand Slam singles titles. Agassi who says his 12 years of service as a Davis Player indicates his respect for the event, said that he just isn't up to the schedule anymore.

"With the Davis Cup format the way it is, the way it's been scheduled after every Slam, it asks a lot out of the players," Agassi said Wednesday. "It's something that 12 years later I just don't find myself in position to pull off to my standard." In retrospect, last year's surprising run to the semifinals (sans Sampras and Agassi) that ended in Spain might have been the final flourish; it could be five years before the United States wins another title, if then. This, John sensed. The combination of the "lukewarm" support of the players and the USTA's unwillingness to fund a tennis academy in Flushing, N.Y., for junior development drove him to resign, opening the position for Patrick.

"I don't think, deep down, I was cut out for that job," John said. "Maybe his personality is better suited to handle it than mine is. Maybe he's a little mellower than I am. He doesn't have the same level of energy; he doesn't jump out of his pants."

With Sampras, Agassi and Jim Courier, the architects of those glorious days, out of the Davis Cup loop, Patrick McEnroe had little choice when he put together this disparate lineup: 30-year-old Todd Martin, a veteran of 15 Davis Cup ties, and a bunch of kids -- Jan-Michael Gambill (23), Justin Gimelstob (24) and Andy Roddick (18). Martin and Gambill will play singles, while Gambill and Gimelstob will pair in doubles in the best-of-five-match tie.

The only other real options were Chris Woodruff, last year's first-round hero in Zimbabwe, and Michael Chang, but at 28 they no longer represent the future. It wasn't an accident that McEnroe added James Blake and Robert Kendrick to the squad before leaving for Switzerland. They are both 21.

Gambill and Gimelstob, when pressed, will tell you that this McEnroe understands them better than their previous Davis Cup captain.

"He's very positive," Gimelstob said Wednesday from Basel. "He's got a very open mind, regarding bringing in new guys, the willingness to believe in us and trust us. He's shown a lot of confidence. He knows we need experience.

"I think he has a long view. He understands that he'll need us in the future."

Gimelstob also understands that expectations, in the short term, are likely to run ahead of reality.

"In terms of the U.S. being so spoiled with such a high level of success over the years, we've made it look easy with Agassi, Sampras, Chang, Courier, Martin and [MaliVai] Washington," he said.

"That, definitely, is hard for us."

Indeed they are following the toughest act in American male history.

"Right now, America is not at the forefront of the future of tennis," Agassi said. "I believe that can change. I believe players like Andy Roddick are helping that change. I also believe that we're comparing the future of American tennis to a pretty tough standard with the group that came through with Sampras and Courier and Chang and Todd Martin. I mean, this is an incredible group of guys that have come through, who have accomplished really absurd accomplishments. That's a tough standard to live up to."

Suddenly, even the first-round opponent is imposing. The Swiss team is led by 19-year-old Roger Federer, the 1998 junior world champion. Federer won his first ATP singles title last week in Milan, defeating France's Julien Boutter. Looking for a comparison? It was the unseeded Boutter who eliminated Gambill in the quarterfinals.

Even if the U.S. manages an upset -- and make no mistake, this would be an upset on the Swiss Indoor Opticourt surface -- the likely opponent in the quarterfinals would be France, which is heavily favored over Belgium. That's a matchup that not even Agassi or Sampras might salvage.

As advertised, Patrick McEnroe has said all the right things and struck all the right chords with the exception of Tuesday's "Imus in the Morning" observation that the U.S. team was in Basel "to kick some Swiss butt."

He even picked his brother's brain about potential players, including John himself. He didn't offer the 41-year-old John a guaranteed doubles position on the team, but he invited him to play his way onto the team in practices.

"I've been part of five teams that won; I've had that run," John said. "It would be great to come back like George Foreman, but it has to happen where everyone is comfortable. I wonder if that will ever happen again.

"It would be a bit awkward, to be honest. If he wanted me to be there, I'd be there. But I've got too many kids. It just wasn't right for me at that time."

And so, for now, U.S. Davis Cup will feature Martin for as long as he can remain effective and Gambill and Gimelstob. The real future of U.S. Davis Cup play belongs to the teenaged trio of Roddick (18), Taylor Dent (19) and Mardy Fish (19). Roddick is the reigning world junior champion and, based on early returns, has a chance to be a remarkable player. Dent already has the fastest serve in professional tennis and Fish is destined to be a significant player, too. When they reach their peaks in the coming years, Martin or, perhaps, Courier will be in line for the captaincy.

"We have a good combination," Gimelstob said. "With Todd and all his experience, and obviously we're young and inexperienced. But we have a lot of enthusiasm and passion. Hopefully, we'll play to the task."

So, Gimelstob was asked, are you optimistic about your chances in Switzerland?

There was a pause.

"Uh, cautiously optimistic," he said.

"No,' he added, "make that youthfully optimistic."

Get used to it.