Every year the Davis Cup title (at least theoretically) goes
to the top country in men's tennis. But
for what's supposedly a "team" event, very little emphasis is placed
on the whole "team" part. This
year's champion is Great
Britain , who has one superstar in Andy
Murray and only one other singles player in the top 100. It's kind of hard to take the tournament
seriously when a country like Great
Britain can be deemed the best in the world,
when they're essentially a one-man show.
The whole ATP season is designed to recognize the top
individual players in the world, so it simply doesn't make sense that the
premier team event in men's tennis is so "individual" based. To truly determine which is the best country,
it would make more sense if each country has to use three or four singles
players, as opposed to just two. (Perhaps
keep the current format but only let singles players play once, so that a
country has to us it's 4 best singles players).
The country that would have likely benefited the most from a
more "team" friendly format over the last decade would have been France . Most tennis analysts would acknowledge France has been
one of the strongest countries in men's tennis over the last decade with the
likes of Tsonga, Monfils, Gasquet, Simon and a host of others, but they don't
even have one Davis Cup title with this crop.
Despite all their talent and depth, their lack of a sure fire number one
option has kept them from winning a title.
But does anyone really consider Great
Britain "better" than France when it
comes to men's tennis? It becomes fair
to ask whether the problem was France
and its inability to get the job done at the biggest moments, or whether France
just found themselves stuck in a format that isn't really designed to reward
the best "team".
Some might argue Davis Cup struggles with garnering ratings
and support enough as it is, and throwing out the fourth best player from
Canada against the fourth best player from Belgium isn't going to help in that
regard. This may be true, but there has
to be a way to make the competition more about recognizing the best country, and
not just the country with the best player in any given year. As many others have suggested, making Davis
Cup an every other year event may be the solution toward boosting ratings and
overall interest, and if fans are more excited about the event in itself they
may not care as much about seeing some lower ranked players. One way or the other, if the event is truly
supposed to recognize the country with the best team, the format should be such
that actually having a good "team" is a prerequisite to wining.
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