Hands up all Davis Cup fans. Look around and we are few and far between.
Yes, when played, it can generate some decent crowds and you might witness a small smattering of yellow from the Fanatics.
However, will it make the back page? Will it make the opening credits of Fox Sports or any other sports reports? Unless Nick Kyrgios or Bernard Tomic have a petulant fit, it will be a brief mention and glossed over pretty quickly.
However, in any of the other major tennis tournaments, there will be good coverage, plenty to discuss and a fair amount of interest.
You would also see a spike in the local tennis court usage, with the Australian Open coinciding with a line of players ready to emulate who they have just watched.
So there is definitely interest in tennis. The introduction of Fast 4 suggests that the people in power are concerned with participation and the audiences, and are trying to keep up with the other sports.
However, has the discussion of a World Cup of Tennis ever been touted? Soccer, cricket and rugby all celebrate this notion of a World Cup.
Creating a tournament every few years and putting the best teams against the best to see who is the best. Why not in tennis?
As mentioned, the Davis Cup is the ‘team’ component of tennis. However, asking around a group of tennis enthusiasts the question ‘who does Australia play next in the Davis Cup’ creates blank looks and even a question of when do they play next.
For most sports, fans alike have a chance to get behind their country, this occurs in tennis, but on a scale that doesn’t allow for much passion to be injected.
Think about the following. Every three years or so, teams from around the world come together for a tournament where every singles/doubles games scores for their country.
It’s not the Olympic or Commonwealth games where only a few select stars participate, but a key date in the Tennis calendar that will attract the best players from each country.
Sure, scheduling will be difficult to place in an already jam packed calendar. But take away the Davis Cup which is irrelevant in the eyes of most tennis fans and place the World Cup somewhere in between the US Open in August/September and the Australian Open in January.
It could be held in Brisbane where temperature and weather won’t impact performance and could be used as a lead up to the Australian Open. If it’s only every couple of years, then players can work their schedule around the requirement.
By giving tennis a more identifiable ‘team’ game, not only will it assist in fans becoming more aligned to their country and supporting with more enthusiasm and interest, it will allow players to have an impact for their country while their nation is watching.
Like cricket, tennis needs a facelift and a boost to enable its fans to feel connected and to feel passionate towards their players.
The Australia Bureau of Statistics records that only five per cent of the Australian population (15 years and over) are participating in tennis. What would the statistics be during the Australian Open or perhaps a month long World Cup of tennis?
Rhys Adams
Roar Rookie
Some fantastic suggestions and certainly gives the WC of Tennis more credence when you break it down like that. I feel if it was a big enough tournament with good publicity and only every 3/4 years, the best players would play as it would be the only chance to represent their country. in Australia, we only really get a chance to see great tennis once a year. But the thought of a World Cup held in Australia at some point, is really quite exciting.
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Roar Guru
I'd love to see a World Cup in tennis, in fact this came into my head while I was on holiday in February. Here is what I propose: * It would be held every four years in the year following an Olympic year (2017 would be the next such instance), and be held sometime close to the end of the year * It would be held in one of the four Grand Slam countries (Australia, France, Great Britain and the United States of America), with the Grand Slam venue (Rod Laver Arena, Court Philippe Chatrier, Centre Court at Wimbledon and Arthur Ashe Stadium) to host the final * Like soccer's World Cup, it would feature 32 nations split into eight groups of four and operate exactly the same * It would be played using the standard Grand Slam tennis rules (i.e. tiebreaks in every set except the final set; fifth for men and third for women, 10-point tiebreak in mixed doubles if one set all) * Each nation would have their highest-ranked male and female in singles (e.g. Australia would have Nick Kyrgios and Samantha Stosur) as an automatic inclusion, plus their highest-ranked doubles players. Any lower-ranked players are for backup in the event any other players are injured or rested. Also, a legend can also be named captain (e.g Lleyton Hewitt for Australia) * A tie would unfold as follows: ** MATCH 1 - Men's Singles (best of five) ** MATCH 2 - Women's Singles (best of three) ** MATCH 3 - Men's Doubles (best of five) ** MATCH 4 - Women's Doubles (best of three) ** MATCH 5 - Mixed Doubles (best of three with 10-point tiebreak) ** MATCHES 4 AND 5 will be played in the Fast4 format if the tie has already been decided by this point * A player can be substituted in between sets (e.g. Tomic could replace Kyrgios after the second set in the men's singles), but the player who comes on must play out the match. This decision can be made by the captain and must be done wisely. * The third place playoff will use the Fast4 format, with all matches to be best-of-three, to reduce the risk of injury. Those are just some of my rules as to how a Tennis World Cup would work.
Timmuh
Roar Guru
I'm not much of a tennis person, so I could be wrong my views. It seems the main reason for the David Cup fading away has been that the top players from most nations don't bother with it. The same goes for the Federation Cup. The money is in the individual tournaments and the players (as is destroying cricket right now) follow the money. Would that change with a World Cup? Or would the best players just take the month off, while the second-stringers look to make a name for themselves. As something new it would probably get the best players for a short time, but after that? I guess the case can be made that the Olympics get the best players more often, so a World Cup might.