One way or the other, change is gonna come

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Excitement and uproar have been the prevailing responses to reports that a biennial tennis World Cup, designed in part and backed by the game’s top stars, is to be discussed by players during this year’s Australian Open.

Everyone – players, Tour and Federation officials, TV execs, and now the world’s tennis hacks – have had their say on the idea, but one thing stands out: this competition, by design or otherwise, is a direct threat to the future of the Davis Cup.

“That’s certainly not the intention,” according to James Hird, director of the Melbourne-based sports and marketing firm Gemba, who have been developing the format for over a year now and presenting it to select players and officials over the past six months.

“Being Australian, Davis Cup means a lot. I’ve got great memories of Pat Cash, Pat Rafter and now Lleyton Hewitt and their Davis Cup exploits, and I appreciate how much it means.

“But there’s a consumer out there who wants more. And if we can bring a new tennis fan to the game, that’s what we’re aiming for.”

It’s no secret: the success of the proposed World Cup competition comes down to one factor – attracting the big names…

Maybe so, but anybody suggesting the addition of an event to the already sardined ATP calendar can expect little more than short shrift from the top players – whose pleas for a condensed season have been reduced to broken-record status – and Tour executives, who would have a battle on their hands to make space for a ten-day event every other season.

Something has to give, and the players at the sharp end of the men’s game are suggesting that it is the Davis Cup, the 110-year-old ‘original’ men’s national team competition, that would make way in their minds.

Few were as unequivocal as Ivan Ljubicic, the 30-year-old one-time world No.4, currently enjoying an Indian summer during his career at No.24. “The [Davis Cup] format is not suited for the players at the moment,” explained the Croatian. “Maybe it was perfect 20 or 30 years ago, but now it’s really too much for us.

As he points out, no other competition asks players to play “best of five sets, three days in a row,” not a requirement of Davis Cup, but a reality for the leading talents of many nations.

“The week after you can’t play, the week before you can’t play,” he added. “And it’s a shame because I’m 100% sure that every player would love to play for his nation – in fact I’m not going to play Davis Cup any more for the same reason.”

But among the game’s golden group, actions are speaking louder than well-rehearsed words. Andy Murray, who played all three rubbers in a failed effort to rescue Great Britain from slipping into the Davis Cup’s fourth tier against Poland last September, is open to the notion of a tennis World Cup.

“I am a great fan of the Davis Cup,” said the world No.5. “But if a decision was taken to drop it, or something else could change in the calendar, then a World Cup is a fascinating idea.”

Davis Cup may not be the be all and end all to players, but fans love a chance to wear the national colours…

A great fan he may be, but Murray won’t be playing Lithuania in March with Team GB. And who can blame him? A wrist injury sustained during the Poland tie didn’t prevent him from claiming two singles rubbers in Liverpool, but forced him to take the next six weeks off, missing the the Japan Open and Shanghai Masters 1000 in the process.

Now, with the Australian Open draw just a few hours away, the Scot has seen his top-four status slip just before the year’s first slam. The five-point advantage Juan Martin del Potro holds over Murray means that he cannot face any of the three men ranked above him – Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic – until the semi-finals. In contrast, Murray will most likely face one of the four should he reach the last eight.

Federer won’t be playing Davis Cup in March either, denying punters the chance to see another showdown with Nadal as Switzerland face Spain in the World Group first round. Majors and the 2012 Olympics are the priorities for the most decorated Grand Slam champion in the men’s game. Davis Cup has never really been high on his priority list and, despite many pointing to it as a glaring omission from his laden trophy cabinet, still just doesn’t cut it. Expect the annual ‘here-comes-the-cavalry’ appearance in September for Switzerland’s relegation play-off.

And so it goes on. Andy Roddick and James Blake, US Davis Cup stalwarts for most of the last decade, have both reassessed their priorities and cut DC out of their plans for 2010. And it should be noted that Nadal, in the enviable position of knowing that Spain can probably cope without his services, is a full-time patriot, but more a part-time player as he narses his body back to full health. More and more, Davis Cup is viewed by players as an optional extra, a distraction from the business end of the tennis world – a position that undermines its importance to fans and the prestige of winning the competition.

The ITF shows no signs of changing things any time soon. “Everyone is in agreement that a nation vs nation format is very attractive, something Davis Cup has recognized for over a century,” read their reactionary statement yesterday, “and only time will tell if a new competition can earn a regular place in the tennis calendar.

“Over its history, Davis Cup has seen many changes in the structure of tennis, some very significant like the move to professionalism in 1968 and the founding of the professional tours in the 1970s.

More and more, Davis Cup is viewed by players as an optional extra, a distraction from the business end of the tennis world…

And the competition has been adapted to reflect this new tennis world in the past. In 1972 out went the ingloriously uncompetitive challenge format – in which teams played off to face last year’s champion – and in came the World Group, giving 16 teams a chance at the title each year and better reflecting the international aspect of the competition and giving nations such as Sweden, Spain, and Russia to emerge as tennis superpowers alongside founding nations USA, Australia, France, and Great Britain.

“While Davis Cup has evolved and modernised over the years,” the statement continues, “it has not lost its intrinsic values based around the home and away format that attracts great support from fans, sponsors, television and the players themselves who enjoy playing in front of their home country fans.”

They do have a point. Davis Cup may not be the be all and end all to the players, but the fans love a chance to wear the national colours. There’s no denying the draw of injecting patriotic fervour into a sporting event, but if you want a figure, try this one for size: 27,200. That is the one-day attendance record for any sanctioned tennis event, set at the 2004 Davis Cup final as Spain beat the USA in Seville.

But that number merely serves to prove that national team tennis competitions draw a crowd with a tie played at home. The question is whether a true ‘World Cup’ atmosphere – that enjoyed at the quadrennnial soccer, rugby and cricket varieties – could be replicated when fans would have to travel to follow their ‘team’.

If the ATP World Tour Finals are anything to go by, the answer is…probably. The tournament directors took a big gamble when they decided to split ticketing for the eight-day event into fifteen sessions, but – the logistical headache of evening sessions finishing perilously close to the time of the last tube out of Greenwich aside – it paid off. All fifteen sessions were packed, regardless of which duo were on court, but then every player there was a top-tenner – and the fans voted with their feet.

It’s no secret: the success of the proposed World Cup competition comes down to one factor – attracting the big names. The power lies with the players. If the Davis Cup cannot accommodate changes to truly modernise, and James Hird and Co. can offer an enticing alternative – and whatever you think of gimmicky 25-second countdowns and downright weird compulsory substitution rules, it sounds like they’ve done a pretty good job – then change is gonna come.

Davis Cup will never disappear, there is too much history attached to it for that. But unless the ITF can see fit to rethink it’s premier competition to dovetail with the modern realities of the tennis calendar and an elite sporting landscape in a state of money-flooded flux, it will soon resemble a relic.

And if the players go, so do the fans.