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Three-set Davis Cup is a terrible idea

Australia's Sam Groth celebrates after he and playing partner John Peers won their Davis Cup doubles tennis match against Slovakia's Andrej Martin and Igor Zelenay. (AAP Image/David Moir)
Roar Guru
4th April, 2017
6

Davis Cup started in the year 1900 when four Harvard University tennis players conceived of a tennis challenge between USA and Great Britain.

One of them, Dwight Davis, invested $USD1000 of his own funds in a trophy, and he was immortalised with the tournament named after him.

Belgium, France, Austria and Australasia (combined team of Australia and New Zealand) joined a few years later. Slowly more and more countries joined, and currently as many as 135 countries participate.

While USA and Australia are the traditional heavyweights, there are many new kids on the block, such as current champions Argentina, and runners-up Croatia.

Davis Cup’s unique format allows previously unheralded teams to battle for glory. The eight quarter-finalists this year are Serbia, Great Britain, USA, Argentina, Spain, Croatia, Italy and the Czech Republic.

At present, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) is planning to reduce Davis Cup matches from best of five setters to best of three. The initial proposal has already been taken, and if ratified by two-thirds of the full membership of the ITF at the annual conference at Ho Chi Minh City in August, then the 2018 Davis Cup will see best of three-set matches.

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The reasons cited are to increase top player participation, to increase spectator interest and shorter attention spans of audiences, and to retain TV audience.

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But this is a bad idea.

Have we forgotten the 2015 Davis Cup, when Andy Murray preferred to play the Davis Cup final on slow clay at Ghent, Belgium, even though he played the ATP World Tour Finals on hard courts a week before? In fact, Murray clearly stated that he would prefer to train for the Davis Cup on clay, but the Tour Finals were mandatory.

Have we forgotten the stellar contributions of Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic to Davis Cup? Have we so soon forgotten Roger Federer’s joy in winning the Davis Cup in 2014, with Stan Wawrinka as his teammate?

The argument that top players don’t prefer Davis Cup is clearly incorrect.

It is also fallacious to assume that spectator interest will increase once five-setters are reduced to three. Interest in Davis Cup is because of tradition and because countries aim to be the best in the world – people want to see their country doing well. It has nothing to do with the number of sets.

Reducing the sets to three will dilute and devalue the importance of the event. Let the Davis Cup’s attraction of patriotism and tradition continue. For both, continuing with five set matches is a must.

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