Davis Cup enters its 115th year
The Davis Cup, played annually, began as early as 1900 as a tie to popularize the game between England and the USA and is the equivalent to the world championships in Cricket, Football and the Olympics held every four years. Tennis was not the only motive for Davis Cup. At that time these two countries had not completely erased the bad memories of the historic ‘Boston tea party’ and the US civil war. Davis Cup was another diplomatic move to unite the two countries.
The Davis Cup founder, Dwight Davis was a Harvard under-graduate and with a strong passion for the game, was an accomplished Tennis player. He subsequently played the US-Open and Wimbledon and later became a prominent figure in the government. He held the position of US War Secretary, the Governor General of the Philippines and served as a Major in the Second World War. He used Tennis to bring USA and England closer. Even as an under-graduate he had his sights well set to be a diplomat and achieved it with distinction.
The amateur professional clash
Until very recently Tennis was not an Olympic sport. Among the many reasons for it, Tennis did not need the Olympics because the Davis-Cup was and still is a very big motivator to promote the game. From two countries in 1900, today the Davis-Cup has developed into a ‘system’ which includes over 122 countries. It has evolved to be a ‘ladder system’ with multiple zonal tiers covering the whole world. Only the countries in the top World Group really play for the Davis Cup itself. Others play for promotion within the zones first and if successful, get into the World Group.
After 1968 onwards the Davis Cup began to have some challenges within the Tennis circle. Davis-Cup and Tennis on the whole were amateur events worldwide. Professionals could not participate in them. It is Football that broke this code and permitted professionals into sports, first. After many issues Tennis allowed professionals to play the Grand Slams in the late sixties. For this reason period after 1969 is referred to as the Open-Era. Rod Laver of Australia who turned professional could not play in the first few years of his career. When the professionals were allowed, Laver won the all four of the major events in 1969 achieving the last Grand-Slam of Tennis. There was a noticeable difference between professionals and amateurs then.
As a result of professionalism, most of the countries could not employ their best players to play for their teams. Money events came to being and this reduced the image of Davis-Cup creating an issue. The issue of player availability for countries, popped up. To overcome these issues, the sole controlling body of international Tennis and the owner of the Davis-Cup rights, the ITF stopped all other events during the Davis-Cup week. This was not taken well by the players and in turn gave birth to the two very powerful professional bodies; the Association of Tennis Professionals [ATP] for men and Women’s Tennis association [WTA]. In reality this has reduced ITF’s importance in global Tennis today.
Asia-Oceania Group
For countries which do not have players in the top 500 of the world men’s ranking, Davis-Cup has become the only event that draws the attention of the cross section of their population. Originally, it was the ‘National Championships’ that attracted Sri Lankans. It was so attractive, that it brought players from all neighboring countries and sometimes even from Europe. Currently Sri Lanka plays in group 2 of the Asia-Oceania zone. The challenge for Sri Lanka is to remain in this group without being pushed down further. Our current standard of men’s Tennis is only sufficient to achieve this level. To win in this group we need two good singles players and a strong doubles combination. This has proved to be a formidable challenge to us. In the professional era of Tennis, that is after 1969, our best performances are too few to be recognized as a Tennis nation. We do not have a men’s program in Sri-Lanka to do any better.
This weekend Sri Lanka will be playing the Philippines on their home grounds. Their team has two players with doubles ranking of 60 and 179. On paper, the Philippines look stronger. We lost to them last year in Colombo but survived in the group beating Vietnam in the relegation round. Harshana Godamane who did very well in the past few years, seems not completely fit and the other singles is being played by Sharmal Dissanaike who got past the first round in the 3rd leg of the Colombo Futures last week. This has given him the ATP ranking of 1969. So we hope that their playing form on the days of the tie, will be on our side and we will come through.
Pakistan vs Kuwait in Colombo
Pakistan will be playing Kuwait in Colombo this week-end. They have chosen Colombo to be their neutral ground due to the security situation in those two countries. It too will be an interesting tie to witness. Some of these players have world rankings.
Survival of Davis Cup
The Davis Cup will survive because it has something for all the countries involved in Tennis. It has been an event which has enhanced the image of Sports, countries and players right through its existence. Dwight Davis started it with the spirit of peace and sports. Both have immense validity in our lives today.
-George Paldano, former international player; Accredited Coach of Germany, ITF and USPTR; National, Davis Cup and Federation Cup Coach–gptennis.ceylon@gmail.com-