Because You Never Asked

(6/05)

Tennis is about as international as a sport can be, there hardly being a place on the face of the Earth where someone with a racquet can’t find a game. It’s not unreasonable to suggest that more than 50 countries are producing players that can compete at the sport’s highest level. The competition for tennis supremacy has become more global than ever.

And that is why it is not only ironic, but shameful, that the sport’s once most cherished trophy and preeminent symbol of competition amongst nations, the Davis Cup, has almost fallen off the radar of world interest. When one considers the mega-success of golf’s Ryder Cup, along with the importance of the international competitions in sports like soccer, basketball, hockey, etc., I am tempted to say something dreadful about the doddering clods who run tennis (especially in America), but I’ll restrain myself by only saying this: by allowing the Davis Cup to tumble into the abyss of athletic anonymity, they have almost accomplished the impossible.

I’ll be brief (there is no choice) in stating what I agree with in the current format: for the plan I am about to offer, a 16 team tournament is perhaps the perfect number.

I will now be long-winded (there is no choice) in fixing the rest of the competition. The main problem with the current format is that nobody knows where to find it. Each round is spread out over the course of the annual tennis calendar, with at least 2 to 3 months between each encounter. This creates a number of problems. It means that each time a round is played, the interest in the losing countries has enough time to evaporate into non-existence. By the time the final is played, concern for the result has pretty much shrunk to a pinpoint on the globe.

In addition, by playing each match in one of the participating countries, we splinter the world’s focus into too many little pieces. This diffusion of both time and place creates another serious problem: it makes it very difficult for the players to fit it into their schedules. One must remember that tennis is an individual sport and these guys are out there fighting for their lives every week. To expect them to drop everything, up to 4 times a year, and go off somewhere half way around the world for a competition that has little impact on their overall careers, tends to dilute the field. Many of the best players avoid it.

What must be done is to end this fractured format and provide the Davis Cup with a single focus at a specific time and place each year. In so doing, we can concentrate world interest in the event.

So now we have all 16 teams that have qualified together at one site.

Where?

The event will be rotated around the 4 Grand Slam venues every year. This means that once every 4 years the competition will be played in Melbourne, Paris, London and New York. They are all outstanding tennis facilities in cities capable of hosting what should become a huge international event. Even more importantly, each site represents the whole gamut of surfaces the sport is played on, thus giving each nation a chance to excel in its favorite playing environment, or, even better, to show the versatility of its tennis every year. Those with a more well rounded tennis base will win more Cups. It also eliminates some of the absurd home field advantages created by allowing the host nation to choose and doctor the surface, a state of affairs made even more ludicrous when one considers that a team’s quality does not determine who hosts a Davis Cup “tie”.

Drawbacks: For many of the smaller countries, this takes the competition off the home sod where they’d have the opportunity to host an important athletic event while supporting their team. I’d counter by saying that the event is not nearly as important as it should be. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the global economy where promotion and media are not just everything, it’s everything. What good is a final between Argentina and Russia, played in Buenos Aires, when nobody in the rest of the world neither cares nor is watching?

It also gives one of the 4 host nations a bit of an advantage every 4th year (if they have qualified), mitigated somewhat because the world’s top players are quite familiar with all of these sites. In addition, another long trip to Australia is never an attractive possibility; but once every 4 years, with much advanced notice, is not too much to ask.

When?

The US Open is played in New York in late August-early September. It is the last of the glamorous “Grand Slam” events, which is really the yardstick by which tennis players are measured. Upon its completion, there is a natural tendency, both emotionally and physically, for the tennis world to wind down a bit. For the few weeks following the American championships, the tennis calendar is bereft of any eye-catching competition.

The Davis Cup tournament I will outline a bit further on, should begin on the last Sunday in September. This would give all the players that are going to participate, at the very least, 2 weeks to relax, recharge and prepare for the event. A 2 to 3 week break from competition should be sufficient to create the desired eagerness to compete, as well as dealing with nagging injuries and preparation for that year’s surface. By playing
the tournament at this time of year, the weather at all 4 sites is still well within good playing conditions. But the fundamental idea is to have this date etched in stone for purposes of player scheduling and tradition.

Drawbacks: Coming on the heels of a mega-event like the US Open, is the 2 to 3 week span between events sufficient to garner the interest we are looking for? In other words, can we do it all over again just 20 or so days later?

Promotion, ladies and gentlemen, promotion.

How?

OK, now we have 16 teams at one site on the last Sunday in September.

The Tournament: On opening day, the first Sunday, we have 8 matches going on all over the grounds, starting no later than 11 AM. The first 2 singles matches and the doubles are all played on the first day. If the required 3 points to win are not gotten on this first day, Monday will be used to complete the “tie”. There will be no dead matches. If you can wrap it up on the first day, your team can play horseshoes, go bowling, or participate in any such activities a world class city has to offer on Monday. If on Monday, you can win it in the 4th match, it’s over. Those who can win their matches quicker will be fresher as the week wears on.

On Tuesday, the 8 remaining teams play all day on 4 courts, using the same format as before. On Wednesday, we mop up those matches still alive. On Thursday, the four remaining teams, using 2 courts, repeat the cycle, with Friday used to mop up. The grand finale takes place on the weekend, Saturday and Sunday (if necessary), using the same format.

If weather or excessively long matches (3 of 5 sets, as always) threaten the schedule, other courts can be used to hasten the process.

This format will be much more indicative of which country truly deserves the Cup. It not only makes it easier to attract the best players, but depth of talent now becomes more of a factor. No longer will a country with just 2 good players (or even 1 great one) be able to win without a legendary effort. Which brings me to …

The Teams: At some agreed upon time previous to the tournament (a week, 10 days?) each country must submit a list of 6 players who will make up their team. Any one of these players can be named to play any match during the tournament.

Seeding the Teams: Each team will be seeded and the draw will correspond strictly to
these seedings (#1 plays #16, etc.). The seeds will be determined as follows: from the list of players submitted, the 3 players with the best singles ranking, along with the best doubles ranking formed by any 2 players on the team, will be added up. The resultant lowest number will be the first seed, the highest number the 16th seed, and so on.

Who Plays Who: The night before each day of competition, the captains of opposing
teams will select players as follows: the worse seeded team exposes its singles player for the first match, the higher seed choosing his player in response; for the second match, the better seed chooses first and the other team responds; for the doubles, the worse seed first, the better seed responds. If the “tie” does not end the first day, no singles match can be repeated on the “mop up” day. The captain of the team leading at the time (2 to 1), will have the option of choosing first or last for the first singles. The captain losing at the time will have such choice for a hypothetical 5th match.

Drawbacks: I see no serious drawbacks in using this tournament format. Of course, all kinks and glitches will have to be worked out as the event moves into a hopefully glorious future. Promotion and television coverage are, like all things in the self flagellant degradation we now call the global economy, essential. When humanity finally evolves beyond this adolescent stage in its development, none of this will matter anyway. But for now …