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By Chris Oddo | Wednesday February 28, 2018

 
Lucas Pouille

Many have been critical of Davis Cup in year's past, but now that big changes are coming we hear mixed opinions.

Photo Source: AP

Be careful what you wish for.

After years of calling out Davis Cup, tennis's long-tenured international team competition, and pushing for change, it is here.

And it is big.

Many are calling it the death of Davis Cup. The ITF and the investment group Kosmos announced plans for a major transformation that will leave Davis Cup unrecognizable from its current lovable yet flawed form. If the ITF’s proposal is ratified by a two-thirds majority at the ITF General Meeting in Orlando, Florida in August, sweeping changes will take place. It may not kill Davis Cup, but it will certainly leave a few gaping scars.

Will they heal? Time will tell.

Instead of playing Davis Cup ties throughout the season, and culminating the annual event with a two-team final played in a host nation, the Davis Cup would switch to an 18-team format that is played at a single site in one-week in November. Certainly the host nation's zeal, long a trademark of the Davis Cup, will be missed, both by players and fans. And questions remain about whether or not the new format will replace what it will lose with something else--a new je ne sais quoi for an event that many feel needed a shot in the arm.

The proposal is being bankrolled by Gerard Piqué, the Spain and FC Barcelona football star, who is the founder and President of the investment group Kosmos. The group is backed by Hiroshi Mikitani, the Chairman and CEO of Rakuten, the Tokyo-based e-commerce company.

They plan a 25-year, three-billion dollar investment that would make the Davis Cup more profitable and allow it to fund other future endeavors as well as providing higher compensation to its roster of players.

But will it kill the spirit of the Davis Cup we know now, with its frenzied fans that flock to cheer their nation at home ties, when the event is held at a neutral site that may or may not be involved in the competition, let alone the finals?

Many are skeptical, and the announcement was met with frustration and anger from Davis Cup heroes such as French Captain Yannick Noah and Australian Captain Lleyton Hewitt.

Current player Lucas Pouille, who won the Davis Cup last November with France, also took a shot at the proposal. He says that the Davis Cup basically copied a similar proposal that was rumored to be in the works between the ATP and Piqué’s investment group, which would have been called the World Team Cup.

It never materialized, but the idea has spun out of the negotiations between Cosmos and the ITF.

“I think it’s a death sentence of the Davis Cup. They just picked the idea of the ATP of making the World Team Cup again, because it’s exactly the same. It’s during one week, a lot of teams, some money. That’s why they want to do it,” said Pouille. “But obviously they cannot call it a Davis Cup any more. When you’re not playing at home, or in the country against who you’re playing, then it’s not a Davis Cup.”

It may not be Davis Cup, but whether the name stays or not, the question remains: will it be better? Will it alleviate the concerns that many had about the best players in the sport skipping ties or even full seasons? Will it allow for less wear and tear on the bodies of those who do compete, thereby lengthening the careers of future stars, while at the same time ensuring their participation? Will the event have the same emotional effect on fans and players when it is carried out in a rapid-fire week-long frenzy rather than its current one-year grind?

Think about a final in a time zone 12 hours ahead of the host nation's own. Think about France and Italy battling for the title in Southern California, Shanghai or Buenos Aires. Is it even feasible?

We may have our answer as soon as next season.

But it’s not a guarantee.

“It’s politically tricky and no sure thing that this gets rubber-stamped,” Jim Courier told Chris Clarey of the New York Times in an interview on Monday.

But money talks, and $3 billion is a lot of money. It’s going to take a lot of opposition, and a better, perhaps more lucrative deal, to knock Kosmos and their plans with the ITF out of contention.

According to ITF President David Haggerty, the proposed competition would provide more than $20 million in prize money for the players in the final phase each year. There would, hypothetically, also be more money to develop the sport’s lower level of tournaments and for national federations. The plan for the week is to include 18 national teams, which would be divided into six groups of three for round-robin play over three days. Each tie would include two singles matches and one doubles match, and each team would have four players. Eight teams would advance to the quarterfinals, and those teams would be guaranteed a spot in the following year’s final phase.

It would be a crazy tennis festival that would require a site that included a massive tennis infrastructure. In theory it sounds like a lot of fun, but many have yet to warm up to the idea and say that while the Davis Cup experience needed subtle changes designed to lure top players and make it co-habitate with the rigorous ATP Tour in a more productive manner, it didn’t need a complete transformation.

What they see in the Kosmos/ITF proposal is unrecognizable.

“The end of Davis Cup,” wrote French Captain Yannick Noah on Twitter. “How sad. They sold the soul of an historic event. Sorry mister Davis.”

“Goodbye Davis Cup,” tweeted former Russian star Yevgeny Kafelnikov. “Original spirit of competition is gone.”

It’s a debate that has been carried out amongst tennis fans and pundits for years, generating varying opinions and—always—passion. And it is destined to linger all spring and summer until the ITF meets in Orlando. Likely longer than that.

 

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