Zagreb, Feb 10: James Blake has predicted that the new breed of US players will win the Davis Cup ''within the next four or five years'' despite their defeat by Croatia in their world group first-round tie in Zagreb.
Without Australian Open champion Andre Agassi and US Open holder Pete Sampras, both of whom made themselves unavailable for selection, the Americans were beaten by a Croatia side inspired by the comeback of former Wimbledon champion Goran Ivanisevic and by three wins from Ivan Ljubicic.
Ljubicic's 6-3 6-7 6-4 6-3 victory over Blake gave Croatia an unbeatable 3-1 lead yesterday. Ljubicic had teamed up with Ivanisevic to claim the doubles tie and a 2-1 lead for Croatia on Saturday.
The result leaves US tennis officials dwelling on the future of men's tennis in America in the post-Agassi and Sampras era.

But Blake said he and the other young Americans had the ability to take US tennis back to the top.



''We're going to win a Davis Cup in the next four or five years,'' Blake said after his defeat to Ljubicic.



''With Andy (Roddick), myself, Robby (Ginepri), Taylor (Dent) and Mardy (Fish), I'm pretty confident we can do it. We really care about the Davis Cup and losing like this really hurts bad.''



The US have won the cup a record 31 times but their last victory came in 1995 when Sampras won it almost single-handedly with three victories away to a strong Russian team in Moscow.



''I don't see how any team can care more about Davis Cup than US,'' Blake said.



The US now face a relegation play-off tie to see if they can stay in the elite 16-team world group next year.



''We've done it before, Andy and I, so I think we can do it again,'' Blake added.


Bureau Report