The Davis Cup, a competition that had its genesis as a colonial indulgence at an American cricket club in Boston 119 years ago, will never be the same after its Spanish inquisition. But it might be better if lessons are learned from the refit in Madrid that wound up in the Caja Mágica on Sunday night.
Tennis is in a rare state of flux. Gerard Piqué, the Barcelona footballer who inspired and organised the World Cup of Tennis, as it is now sold, is sensible enough to acknowledge the International Tennis Federation may have to merge with its premier competition, the fledgling Association of Tennis Professionals Cup, which starts in Australia in January.
The two cannot co-exist indefinitely and both governing bodies, who have had a fractious relationship in recent years, will have to consider a compromise to save the Davis Cup.
There are no guarantees but once the dust settles they will have to talk about the future of an unwieldy event that was stumbling along as an anachronism until desperation forced this experiment of bringing 18 countries together for one week. It was no more than a qualified success and will return to Madrid next year, at least, with the losing semi-finalists Great Britain assured a place.
There was even speculation after the dramatic 2-1 defeat by Spain in the semi-finals on Saturday that Great Britain may be a future host, although there is no space that could accommodate the revised format, which almost buckled as teams crammed their three daily matches into a physically draining schedule across three courts.
The finals tournament needs fewer teams and more courts to avoid the many post-midnight, mid-winter finishes, or it will risk surrendering primacy to the ATP Cup, an 18-team competition with a more relaxed format, in three cities over 10 days in the warmth of an Australian summer.
Leon Smith looked quizzical when asked about the chances of the Davis Cup being held in Great Britain when it leaves Madrid in 2021. “That’s a big question for me to answer in my low position in the ranks,” he said, smiling.
“I don’t know. It depends. The calendar date is obviously going to be looked at, September being the one that’s touted. Whether that’s possible or not, I don’t know. But we’d be better to have it at that time of year. You need a lot of space. One of the things that would help with the scheduling is having more match courts. If it was an outdoor event, that would help. Indian Wells has been spoken about, having something like that where we can get through the matches a different way.
“In terms of in Britain, clearly you’re looking at indoor. I’m not sure how many potential venues we’d have for something like that. I don’t know what the answer is. Would it be great to have an event like that? Of course.
“We’re always looking at ways to showcase our sport. Hosting the world’s best team event in tennis would be one of them. Hopefully we could look at it.”
What Smith can look at on the court is an encouraging future after a string of uplifting performances by Kyle Edmund, the doubles team of Jamie Murray and Neal Skupski, Dan Evans, who came good against Germany to get GB into the semi-finals, and, in a cameo on day one before a minor thigh strain and stamina deficit kicked in, Andy Murray.
“We should be excited by what we have in British tennis,” Smith said. “We’ve got a raft of great doubles players, these two [Jamie Murray and Skupski] and what Joe Salisbury’s doing. I look forward to a really positive 2020. Andy will go on his journey of coming back and keep building momentum, which is going to be exciting to see.
“Kyle [who endured an eight-match nightmare and slipped to No 67 in the world rankings] will be disappointed with how his year’s gone. But then you look at the player he’s been in Paris [where he won again] and the player he’s been here [winning all his matches], he should be extremely motivated by what’s possible for him, to move back up the rankings. There’s so much in his game and he looks like he’s in a good place, got a new coaching team. I expect to see really good progress from him.
“Evo had a great year coming back and getting his ranking around the 40 mark. He wasn’t that far away from being seeded at slams, which is a great effort. He’ll be looking to stabilise what he’s doing and try to move towards the 30 mark. Cam Norrie, I look forward to seeing what he can do. He’s had a great couple of years since turning pro.
“I think it’s great, it’s positive. Hopefully everyone can just keep on that path and we come back here next year with – we have a really strong team – but hopefully even stronger.”
