An ‘inky, pinky, polly’ affair!
American diplomat and later a governor of the Philippines, Dwight Davis’s good idea took a good fifty years to be a popular global event – the Davis-Cup. Looking at Tennis history, one could even say that if not for this Tennis would not be enjoying the global popularity of today.
Andy Murray
However, this year’s competition reflects a different picture. The current trend of non participation of good players could leave a question mark hanging over the Davis Cup future.
Last year’s winners – Switzerland lost in the very first round this year not having their stars in the team.
Olympic Games were originally held every eight years coinciding with the planet Venus’s position in the constellation in ancient Greece.
Later it became ‘half Venus cycle’ of four years. Davis-Cup was also to be at four-year intervals. With less than ten countries taking part in the early stages and being a knockout format, it was unattractive, so it was played annually.
Now, 104 years later, times have changed and the annual event is proving to be too much of a strain on players. The professional tour calendar which is packed is the players’ priority than playing for their countries.
Impact of professionalism
Davis Cup was originally played only between Great Britain and the USA. Today there are 132 countries playing Davis-Cup. Until few decades ago the competition was to find a challenging nation against the cup holders.
This changed too and the cup holders also had to fight out from the very first round. In the past, the final rounds had the best players of the world.
In this year’s final between Great Britain and Belgium only one player is from the world’s top ten – Andy Murray.
Formerly, professionals were not allowed to play in the Davis-Cup. The image of Tennis being an amateur event of gentleman was strictly upheld.
Around 1985 a ‘car-park revolution’ in the USA by the players gave birth to the men’s Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) and its impact on the game seems immense today.
Money was always made through sporting events but it never reached the players before 1985. The money aspect has a very big impact in bringing the status of Davis Cup down.
Change of format
Today’s Davis-Cup competition ambiance is the opposite of the original one. Wimbledon Championships still holds this original ‘aura’ but the Davis-Cup has taken to the ‘Football Stadium atmosphere’ and it seems to be losing out.
Much of the Tennis fans dislike this ambience as it is evident in the reduced audience interest.
The current format of the Davis Cup grouping came to being in 1981. The 132 countries that play are in 12 groups.
Except for the World Group which is global, all others are regional. While countries in the lower group find it interesting and vital to keep Tennis in their countries, the top end countries with multiple Davis-Cup winnings record, are barely able to attract good players into their teams. For Davis-Cup’s future this is a critical issue.
2015 final – Great Britain vs. Belgium
Great Briton has won the Davis Cup nine times. The last time was in 1936. That is 79 years ago. In this year’s final on paper, Great Britain shows a slender lead with a top five player, Andy Murray in the team.
Others in the team do not even have a position in the top 150. Andy’s brother Jamie has a world doubles ranking of 7 and is not ranked in singles.
It is with Andy Murray’s singles ability and his effective combination with his brother in doubles that Great Britain has come this far in 2015.
The tie will be played in Ghent, Belgium from 27th to 29th November on indoor red clay court. Belgium’s home ground advantage will be with their number one David Goffin ranked 16.
Two other Belgians have top 100 singles ranking and all in the team have a doubles ranking. This means this year’s Davis-cup finals will only field two players from the top 50 ranking of singles.
The outcome will probably be a ‘close call’ and everything would depend on how Andy Murray fairs on red clay courts and handle three five set matches in three days.
Sri Lanka is ranked 63 in Davis Cup based on a complicated computing system. The current system of ranking a country using its Davis-Cup performance seems arguably a little unacceptable in validity.
Looking at the Davis-Cup winners in the last three years in my opinion, seems as if the good players are taking turns to appear in the event.
Has the Davis-Cup become a children’s game of ‘hide and seek’ where the ‘catcher’ is decided by an ‘inky, pinky, polly’ count. All these are not enhancing the Davis-Cup image.
Meanwhile counting the number of players in the top 500 of the men’s world ranking is gaining popularity to rank nations in the world. At present it is a more credible ranking than the one coming through Davis-Cup.
George Paldano, former player;
Accredited Coach of Germany;
National,
Davis-Cup, Federation Cup and Qualified coach–. gptennis.ceylon@gmail.com