A new format with 4 singles and 1 doubles in two days. Will the 8 winners play in one only city, like in Malaga? And what about the much-criticized late-night matches?
Published on 14/09/2024 on Ubitennis.com by Ubaldo Scanagatta, translated by Kingsley Elliot Kaye
Why do the Davis Cup matches start so late, at 3 pm, which means they always end around midnight or even one o’clock, when a team – like Brazil that played on Wednesday against Italy and then again on Thursday against the Netherlands – risks having to play decisive matches after a very short rest, thus also impacting the quality of tennis?
In Bologna on Tuesday evening, the Italy-Brazil doubles ended at 0:15 am.
I have followed the Davis Cup with the new format since its first edition in Madrid in the Caja Magica, when its fiercest critics had renamed it the Piqué Cup, holding the former Barcelona football player, as well as captain of the Iberian Red Furies, liable for the great sacrilege.
I followed it with that nostalgic spirit which I share with all those who preferred the old traditional format, three days at home or away. Stands were almost always crammed with fans brimming with genuine enthusiasm. There was no need to “hire” deafening bands of musicians blowing into trumpets and banging on drums. They were matches, truer matches, three sets out of five. The doubles played on the second day did tip the balance, but it was 1 point on 5 and not 1 on 3, therefore 20% and not 33%. Except in the case of a 3-0 after two days, the tie would be decided by the fourth or fifth singles rubber. Pitting the No. 2 of one team against the No. 1 of the other was a considerable source of interest because it helped to understand a little better the technical depth of a team.
My nostalgic spirit, however, did not prevent me from recognizing that unfortunately most top-players (less patriotic than Nole Djokovic) and especially their agents, who do not boost their turnover with Davis Cup, unlike with tournaments and exhibitions, do not relish the perspective of sacrificing two or three weeks. This resulted in them being no longer interested in the Davis Cup that I loved and found so exciting. Even the top players had gotten into the habit of snubbing it once they had lifted a first trophy.
There were, objectively, also the problems arising from an unpredictable tour calendar, which was quite impossible to prepare and merge with the three/four yearly Davis ties. A professional player needed to plan his activity in time, the tournaments to register for (as well as securing appearance fees). Sudden changes of surface were another issue: from hard to clay, then back to hard or vice versa. Not to mention flying from one end of the world to the other, gulping down time zones and jet lag.
The president of the ITF, the American David Haggerty, was even so brave to put his candidacy at risk by planning the revolution and the transition from the traditional format to the current one.
He succeeded both in implementing his reform and being re-elected by guaranteeing money, a lot of money, to the poorest countries. Davis Cup, with all the expenses involved was hardly affordable with the trips to be made, the matches, the teams to be hosted, stands perhaps to be built, lagging ticket sales. They relished collecting the money promised by Piqué’s group (and in the end I don’t know how many of these promises have been kept so far).
That first Davis Cup was won by Rafa Nadal and Bautista Agut’s Spain over Canada, with Nadal and Shapovalov playing such a beautiful and spectacular match before my eyes that I can’t believe the Canadian talent is struggling so much today.
However, the covered arenas of the Caja Magica were only three. Scheduling 4 groups was a complex matter and the start times were often wrongly arranged: one tie ended after 4am. It was Fognini and Bolelli who lost to Querrey and Sock at 4:18am: 6-4 in the third set, after two tiebreaks. The singles rubbers had also gone to a decider, and there had been several tiebreaks. That afternoon of November 20, 2019, became the morning of November 21 at dawn. We journalists waited for massages and press conferences, we jolted down a few lines and watched the sun rise. But it was not the only night match. Several others ended well after midnight.
Haggerty also traded votes, promising he would award the TV rights if he and the countries that wanted the Davis mini format won.
That first edition received so much criticism that the following year in Madrid they found a way to play on another indoor court and finish earlier. Little changed though. The tennis players still complained but no one listened to them. The spectators could go to bed once they couldn’t take it anymore. Not the tennis players.
But they did not count. If Djokovic and Pospisil with their PTPA had been able to create an entirely autonomous “union”, it might have been a different story. They would never have allowed the tournament organizers – who comprise half of the ATP Board (and Djokovic doesn’t like that) – to take a cue from that Davis event to turn their well-rewarded night sessions into matches ending around dawn (does anybody remember the Sinner MacDonald second round match at the 2023 Rolex Paris Masters in Bercy, when the players exchanged their final handshake over the net at 2:37 am?).
Going back to the Davis Cup, why not start at 2 pm, if not at 1 pm? I asked an ITF communications manager, and she told me that “the start time of the matches is the result of a joint decision of the ITF, the host country and the national television”.
Here in Bologna there has been the great atmosphere of the old Davis. Obviously when Italy played, with Brazil and Belgium. But in the other matches only a few close friends with many, too many drums, could be seen (and heard) in the stands. No atmosphere whatsoever.
In Bologna at least there has been Italy… and three days (Wednesday, Friday, Sunday) of Davis almost as it used to be, even if this “all in one day” is not as good as the ties which unfurled over three days.
But in Zhuhai in China it was the USA, Germany, Slovakia and Chile playing. It seems that the days dragged on amid an infinite, desolate sadness. The time zone was discouraging even for the keenest TV fans of the 4 countries involved. The Chilean tennis player Christian Garin spoke about a real disaster.
It cannot be excluded that even Haggerty’s stubbornness, moved by the fate of the US team shall surrender to the evidence. And that, consequently, no longer only in January, but also in September, the sixteen teams of the World Group will return to playing in 8 venues, following the old format criterion: the team that played the last head-to-head tie at home will have to play the next one away.
At this point, however, I wonder: what formula will be adopted? Only two days for each tie with 5 rubbers played two sets out of three, 4 singles and a doubles? It seems the most likely solution. The eight winning teams of the knockout stage would qualify for the Final 8 stage, as is the case today for Malaga (and in the future for Milan? Or will the Chinese and Arabs offer more?). The news of a new small revolution may come out on Tuesday, when the board of the International Tennis Federation (ITF) is meeting.
In the meantime, we at Ubitennis are on the watch.
