The ITF voted to completely overhaul the Davis Cup on Thursday and the world of tennis lost it.
Change is inevitable. Change is always hard. And change is what happened to the Davis Cup on Thursday, in Orlando, Florida, at the annual International Tennis Federation (ITF) conference. The 118-year team tennis institution will change from an event that is stretched out over four weekends throughout the year in various host countries to one away-from-home qualifying round and culminating in a year-end World-Cup style event in a world blow-out championship week, Nov. 18-24. The venue will likely be either Lille, France or Madrid, Spain.
It’s an innovative approach. It’s also a welcome change in many ways. The Davis Cup events were always difficult to manage, and therefore market, because you had to book the venues at the last minute depending on which country teams made it to the next round. With just a few months to prepare, it was difficult to build a blitzkrieg marketing campaign around it. That became a bigger problem as popularity for the event dwindled. Could it have been more popular if the matches had been marketed more effectively? Of course. But the stretched out format made that much too difficult.
The players feel betrayed
However, the Davis Cup has a very passionate fan base, and a long tradition beloved by many tennis fans and players. Furthermore, it’s provided some of the most incredible moments in tennis history. The players love it and so many big names took to Twitter on Thursday to voice their bitter disappointment. Here’s just a sampling of some of the more devastated players.
No surprise that French player Nico Mahut likened the depressing rain at the Western and Southern Open to the news. France is the reigning Davis Cup champions, by the way.
https://twitter.com/nmahut/status/1030103285766737920
Which roughly translates to:
“Even Cincinnati mourns the ridiculous decision of @ITF_Tennis. The 12 votes of the FFT have done very bad. Decision very difficult to assume as French … The Davis Cup is dead and part of the history of our sport is soaring for a handful of dollars.”
https://twitter.com/alizecornet/status/1030100910595350528
Former Wimbledon champion and commentator Pat Cash is calling the ITF’s bluff on luring the top players to an exhausting end-of-year event.
https://twitter.com/TheRealPatCash/status/1030103889712951297
The German tennis federation president was not happy, and voted against the proposed changes.
https://twitter.com/DTB_Tennis/status/1030110424270819330
England’s Lawn Tennis Association also voted no, and made their opinion public before the controversial vote with a full statement.
https://twitter.com/BritishTennis/status/1030003230581948417
No one seems to dispute that changes to the format were needed, but there were elements of the vote that have left a bitter taste in everyone’s mouths. Many noted that the players weren’t consulted — a fair point — and that the effort for the massive change was being backed by an investment group Kosmos, led by Spanish footballer Gerard Pique, something else detractors complained about, which is investing roughly $3 Billion into the franchise.
https://twitter.com/johnhmillman/status/1030098787635810304
The lack of player input for the decision seems indelicate on the ITF’s part, although big names such as Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic have voiced the need for reform in the past.
Why it was necessary
Which brings us to the main problem, the lack of attraction for the sport’s top talent for the event. Nadal has played it several times; Djokovic. too; and certainly past U.S. teams that featured Patrick McEnroe, Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi have lent plenty of prestige to the event. But the consistency of top talent in recent years and the punishing schedule of being on the Tour have made it more difficult for the best players in the sport to participate. Roger Federer never makes it a priority, and in fact, it caused quite a strain in his relationship with compatriot Stan Wawrinka as a result. But the lack of big names like Federer was a huge problem in marketing the Davis Cup effectively.
The ITF got the memo about the Laver Cup’s success
Besides, the enormous popularity of the Laver Cup—featuring the blockbuster doubles match with Federer and Nadal—proved a more alluring format that perhaps this new Davis Cup iteration is trying to copy. This gets even more interesting when you consider the fact that the ITF nor the ATP sanctioned the Laver Cup last year and refused to support it. Hmm.
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Change is good for the Davis Cup, and it needed to happen. I think the new format is a welcome transformation. I just think it could have been proposed more eloquently, and certainly with more input from the players. Success for the event will of course depend on if the players decide to participate in the new format at all. We shall see next year, when the changes take into affect. The changes will take effect in 2019.