TENNIS DAVIS CUP – Male Tennis Pros will have to forget about their repeated suggestions that the Davis Cup competition will be played every two years: ITF president Francesco Ricci Bitti will have none of that and he has recently confirmed this via ITF-Press release.
Male Tennis Pros will have to forget about their repeated suggestions that the Davis Cup competition will be played every two years: ITF president Francesco Ricci Bitti will have none of that and he has recently confirmed this via ITF-Press release. Ricci Bitti, who according to ITF sources will soon announce a re-election bid that might lead to him staying in the job until 2019, has other ideas for his sport. He would consider holding the Davis Cup with matches in a best-of-3-sets format, and he would love to do away with second serves altogether.
However Ricci Bitti would further like to make sets shorter so tennis is more TV-friendly, and to stop players from wasting so much time. “We have a little problem in tennis, which is that we don’t respect spectators too much,” the Italian official told dpa in an interview in New York. Also being president of the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF), Ricci Bitti is passionate about tennis and loses patience only slightly when reminded that many professional players say the Davis Cup is obsolete and needs to change.“The biggest criticism of the Davis Cup is without a doubt inspired by people with other interests. If you play every two years, that frees up several weeks that can be used for other business,” he said. With this he might think of much wanted sponsor- and media-representation duties of the top-players that do take away a lot of time indeed.
Ricci Bitti does not agree with any proposal of format change and pointblank refuses even discussing this: “I will not change the annual nature of the Davis Cup, that would make it less important. Another pillar of the Davis Cup is to play ties at home and away: it is the only chance for many countries to watch professional tennis (on site). That is very important,” he stressed and made clear that he favours another option that is being discussed, playing three sets per match as opposed to the traditional five. “That could be, it could be. That is a different issue: we are very reluctant to make fundamental changes, because the Davis Cup is very successful. But whether it is played in a best-of-five or best-of-three format is within the options. I do not rule that out as something we might consider in the future,” he said. An idea that is backed i.e. by Sweden’s Mats Wilander, a former world No 1 and a three-time Davis Cup champion. “That’s not a bad idea,” Wilander told dpa. “I think that would make huge sense for TV. It would make sense for everyone, except you might not necessarily have the right winners, because five sets is different.”
When reminded of player criticism, Ricci Bitti recaptures: “In 2007 we received a letter that had been signed by 17 of the world’s 20 top players. We took their requests into account, we did away with the week off between Grand Slam tournaments and Davis Cup series. Now many say that is a mistake. They changed their minds, they forgot. They also requested points for the rankings, we gave them those. Now there are players who say it is not fair to award points for a team competition, and in a way that makes sense, because they do not all play,” he said.
Changing the rules of tennis is a long process that does not depend exclusively on Ricci Bitti, but the ITF president has a couple of ideas, which are: “I would change two things: I would shorten sets, because attention always peaks at the end of sets. If you shorten sets you will get more attention peaks,” he said. This means that instead of playing matches in a best-of-three-set format with each set winner having to win at least six games, Ricci Bitti would like to have a best-of-five sets format with players winning only four games to win the set. However: “We tried that in 2002, and the ATP agreed, but the players said no,” he said. “The other change is to allow just one serve. Serving is a focus stroke. The first serve is played at high risk. It would be very important to see what players would do with just one.” Later this month the ITF Annual General meeting in Dubai will be held and of course it remains to be seen whether this issues will be further debated and/or decided upon.
Also ITF confirmed the calendar dates for the 2015 Davis Cup by BNP Paribas:
World Group first round: 6-8 March
World Group quarterfinals: 17-19 July
World Group semifinals and play-offs: 18-20 September
World Group Final: 27-29 November
The Davis Cup Committee has also confirmed the following weeks for the 2017-18 competition. Because of the complexity of the tennis calendar in an Olympic year, the 2016 dates are still being discussed.
World Group first round: week after Australian Open
World Group quarterfinals: week after Miami
World Group semifinals and play-offs: week after US Open
World Group Final: week after ATP World Tour Finals
The 2014 Davis Cup World Group finalists France and Switzerland will contest the World Group Final on 21-23 November 2014 in France.
Davis Cup by BNP Paribas is the World Cup of Tennis. It is the largest annual international team competition in sport, with 122 nations taking part in 2014. The competition is 114 years old having been founded in 1900. The title sponsor is BNP Paribas, the Official Bank of Davis Cup. International sponsors are Rolex (Official Timekeeper) Adecco (Official HR Sponsor) and NH Hotels (Official Hotel), while Wilson Sporting Goods (Official Ball) is an international partner.
