The Davis Cup, a tournament steeped in 118 years of tradition, is now officially the Little River Band of world sport. It exists in name only.
The International Tennis Federation (ITF) voted to turn the sport’s oldest and most acclaimed international men’s team tournament into an 18-team event at their annual general meeting in Florida on Thursday.
The new season-ending tournament will be played at a neutral venue beginning in 2019.
The plans were passed by a 71.43 per cent majority by the 210 member nations. But the decision has had its fair share of critics, most notably from Australia.
The myopia of the ITF is disheartening. With dollar signs in their eyes, they have bastardised history in the name of sustainability. Davis Cup tennis needed refinement, not re-invention.
The heart and soul of the contest, home-and-away ties, has been sacrificed. We’ll no longer have the romanticism of Roger Federer playing on a makeshift grass court in Sydney’s Eastern suburbs. Tony Trabert having dripped sweat on the turf of White City.
To remove the platform for epic Davis Cup clashes, of which there have been plenty, removes the chance for players to cement themselves in their country’s sporting history with as much text.
In an individualised sport, the Davis Cup stands proudly as a sphere of national pride. There are fewer channels in which one can give back to their country – countries that support your craft, countries that back your success, countries that supplement your god given talent to pursue successes the rest of us can only dream of.
The ITF have just killed the Davis Cup. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
Yes, the new format purports to do that. But stripped of the nuances that make unlikely victories so special – hostile away crowds, unfavoured surfaces, unfamiliar conditions, best of five sets, it diminishes achievement.
As recently as 2015, in the heat of Darwin, 34-year-old Lleyton Hewitt took out the fifth and deciding rubber against Kazakhstan to propel Australia into the Davis Cup World group semi-finals. It was the first time in 76 years Australia had come back from the brink at 0-2 down to claim a tie. Under the new format, that scene would not exist. Best of 3? Game, set, match.
Mark Philippoussis, often chided as an early day Kyrgios, a waste of talent, etched his name in Australian tennis history with his exploits in the 1999 Davis Cup final. Heroes can no longer be forged in this context. A partisan French crowd, taking on a clay court specialist on his least preferred surface, only to come out on top.
The callous disposal of this tradition should concern anyone who call themselves tennis fans. And if the goal is to consistently attract the top players back to the tournament, there is no certainty that end will be achieved.
The ITF, jealous of the ATP’s sex appeal, have sold out for the sake of a pissing contest. It remains to be seen what they genuinely have to show for it.
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