It’s time for Davis Cup again but does anyone really care? Here’s what’s wrong and a suggestion for fixing it.
Okay, So What’s Wrong With Davis Cup?
Which would you rather win: a slam title or Davis Cup? Duh.
What’s the prize money for a slam title? Oh, about $1.4 million. And a whole lot more if you win the U.S. Open title and the U.S. Open Series.
What’s the prize money for a Davis Cup title? Much less.
How many ranking points do you win for a slam title? 1000
How many ranking points do you win for a Davis Cup? 0
It’s not quite as simple as that but it’s close. Look at this week for instance. Great Britain is playing its Davis Cup tie in Argentina this coming weekend but Andy Murray won’t be there. He says his knee is injured and it could be.
But Murray is also not wild about slogging through two five set matches on clay in Argentina then flying back and, one week later, playing Rotterdam on a fast indoor surface when he has big points to defend. Murray won the San Jose Open last year and though he’s playing in Rotterdam this year instead, the points still come off that week.
By the way, the Rotterdam/San Jose switcharoo has appearance fees written all over it and that’s unfortunate. San Jose will not get its defending champion because Rotterdam may have waved a bigger pile of money at Murray than San Jose did. If San Jose waved money too, they can hardly complain, but tennis fans should complain.
Back to Davis Cup. The point is that you don’t get any ATP points for Davis Cup, it’s unlikely that Davis Cup payouts can compete with appearance fees plus tournament prize money, and you might be playing on clay in the middle of the spring indoor season which increases the chance of injury. Great Britain can’t really complain about Murray’s decision. Does Great Britain want to win a Davis Cup or do they want Murray to win a few slams including, oh yes please, a Wimbledon or two?
Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal agree with Murray. They’re not playing this week and David Ferrer has pulled out too. Andy Roddick is unusual in this day and age for his steadfast commitment to Davis Cup but, then, he’s seldom in the hunt for slam titles these days.
How to Fix Davis Cup
Here are two suggestions under discussion:
1. Give players ATP ranking points for playing a Davis Cup tie.
2. Schedule a yearly two-week Davis Cup event after the U.S. Open.
Players skip Davis Cup to prepare for tournaments that give them ranking points. Giving them ATP ranking points for Davis Cup play would address that problem but how would we do it?
As Bob Larson points out, why should James Blake get ATP points for beating one of Chile’s second rate players in the meaningless fifth match of a Davis Cup tie? And what about someone like Sam Querrey? He won’t get any of those points until he overtakes Roddick and Blake to get a place on the U.S. team and that could be three or four years from now.
Nope, that suggestion won’t work so let’s go with the second suggestion. It’s time for Davis Cup organizers to step out of the past and into the present world of sports marketing. In today’s world we have the Olympics and the World Cup and the Super Bowl. We already know that the 2012 Olympics will be held in London and the 2008 Olympics haven’t even started yet.
We don’t know where the Davis Cup final will be until the semifinals are complete because the final is held in the home country of one of the participating teams. That means we had about one month’s notice for the 2007 final in Portland, Oregon.
I love Portland, Oregon. I just spent 10 days there hanging out at such wonderful restaurants as Paleys where I ate an appetizer of escargots with bone marrow and some basil garlic bread soaked in bordelaise sauce. No lie. But you can’t build up excitement for an event with one month’s notice.
Create a yearly two-week event and change the surface from year to year. Solicit bids for the event from countries around the world and give them time to promote it. Davis Cup will change fundamentally because the home country won’t be able to choose its favorite surface – or its opponent’s most hated surface – and teams won’t be cheered on by their home crowd.
But it wouldn’t be the first fundamental change. Until 1981, Davis Cup didn’t give out prize money. Prize money was a break from Davis Cup’s amateur past and now it’s time for another.
What do you think? Would Davis Cup gain in prestige or would it become just another tournament?