“Once again Canada is sending us home. This is the third time.” [VIDEO]

The tennis year ended with Canada winning the Davis Cup. 2022 is the third edition to be held New formula It revolutionized the competition in 2019. Likewise, the former Fed Cup, the tournament’s women’s competitor, changed its name in 2020. Billie Jean King CupIn honor of the American tennis player and enthusiast – and the formula is exactly the same as the male counterpart.

After three years (in 2020 events were not held due to covid) can we say the changes are positive? Or, on the contrary, have they aggravated an already critical situation?

The Davis Cup, which Gerard Pique took with his Cosmos three years ago, was in dire financial straits and a reputational crisis. According to that progressive thinking expressed by Mouratoglu with his UTS event (the “time” championship), it was more like a game of cards than tennis. It will take place in 2023) The sport is losing appeal among the younger, now untalented, who are drowning in the information and flash entertainment of social media to give tennis time and space. This game is a must have time. Then, as a first change, Three out of five sets became two out of three. In the news, many wished to lose the misery of the Great Wars forever, Davis was demoted from “fifth slam” status. However, in retrospect, Perhaps this is the most successful change today. Apart from the disastrous performances of the first edition (matches ended at 4 am) the times and durations of the matches were adequate for “young” television consumption.

Now, along with reducing the duration of the matches, the duration of the ties has also been reduced, when earlier it was three days – four singles and one doubles. Today they consume two singles and a double in an afternoon.

This last specialty, mathematically, takes on a new and higher significance: Top 20 percentage points, now 33. This has allowed teams like Croatia and Australia (we saw this in the last Davis Cup) to enter the tournament using their strong pairings. This is despite the fact that the “popular” players who attract a young and mainstream audience play mainly singles. An average tennis fan often doesn’t know the names of the pairs that only feature in ATP Finals. Also many doubles players do not play any matches in the final stage due to the early termination of the tie. Did you bet on the wrong card?

Another problem with this Davis is precisely the presence – or often Absent – great players. Piqué (or whoever) has decided to concentrate the competition in one place (this year Malaga, previously Madrid and travel destination) in the last week of the calendar. It certainly attracts Davis more media attention, (even if the percentage of tickets sold to foreign fans is 21 percent) and in a certain sense it positions itself on par with the World Cup (and other things through this year, at the same time). However, the sanctity of the four-year period is missing, as well as a very different sporting tradition and culture: the World Cup is no longer called the Rimet Cup, while the Davis Cup retains the name of its founder, Dwight Philly Davis. 

The best players often leave it. Such important matches accumulated in a difficult ten days, and at the end of the season, should not fully convince the best of the world, to be obsessively careful with the preparation that does not allow the slightest overlap and is always in perfect shape. Not by accident Alexander Zverev, at first, refused to take the field in the new Davis Cup.

The same considerations may well be extended to the BJK CUP, which has equally undergone a transformation that has brought positive results, but ultimately does not seem to have fully accomplished its rebranding mission, at least for now. Will ITF tournaments mirror ATP and WTA tournaments? On the other hand, both professional associations have implemented some questionable and at least discussed initiatives in recent years.

ATP opened in 2020 ATP Cup, competitions held in various Australian cities in January. The reason for this choice is obvious: almost all the top tennis players at that time of yearIn Australia, fresh and ready to start the season. They are looking for a prestigious and competitive series to mount them, which could be the aforementioned event. It is no coincidence that the tournament’s first final was between Novak Djokovic’s Serbia and Rafa Nadal’s Spain, fueled by points stakes among other things. First 750 then 500. An idea that had already pursued Davis from 2009 to 2015 without much success.

The ATP CUP experience has already ended, with three editions marred by Covid and placed too close to the Davis Cup. Yet his legacy lives on United CupA project in collaboration with the WTA, which will create a merger of men’s and women’s tennis following the Hoffman Cup in previous years (With Italy on the pitch on December 29) is a phenomenon that has always been loved and emulated, although without that competitive fire United now have to burn in the Cup. Comparisons to Davis can be pushed and diluted because of this uniqueness. Very close between the two matches.

sure, Tennis is trying to reinvent itself. Or, its companies are trying to revive it. In contradictory and uncoordinated ways, often. And this is not a good thing. Some of it has turned out to be wrong, but there has been progress. But there is a desire to “refresh” the product, change it, and that will have positive effects on our sports industry. We hope yours is A century of history that defines its essence.