Seemingly, Davis Cup matches are staying best of five !

The vote to reduce them to best of three didn't pass with a two-thirds majority

 

http://www.itftennis.com/news/267420.aspx?utm_source=t.co&utm_medium=referral

-- Edited by Coup Droit on Friday 4th of August 2017 07:13:31 AM

Duplicate 

-- Edited by JonH on Saturday 5th of August 2017 07:57:50 AM

Interesting to read this article in the Telegraph

www.telegraph.co.uk/tennis/2017/09/25/tennis-debate-laver-cup-underlines-davis-cups-potential-would/

All along I have been a proponent of the DC and its current format but the Laver Cup has really got me thinking. 4 things stood out:

1) 3 sets (indeed champions tie break) instead of 5 can work and did work and the event wasnt diminished for it - food for thought.

2) Laver Cup had 6 players playing 9 singles and 3 doubles, maybe DC could look at expanding slightly IF they reduced to 3 sets. And the scoring system of 1 point day one, 2 day two and 3 on day 3 per rubber created a real interest.

3) Neutral venue worked - and it was neutral as Prague really didnt care for Europe or the World team , more the tennis and the event;

4) the top players played. Money of course helped that but still...

Maybe I have it wrong and DC sticking as it is isnt the right call. Maybe what we need is the following for DC:

1) 3 sets instead of 5 but with more rubbers in a tie and a more interesting scoring system

2) Neutral venues for the final

3) 3 weeks instead of 4 weeks of the year taken up with the event

Which to be fair isnt far from what the ITF have proposed and would effectively create a chance for Laver Cup and DC to somehow merge as McEnroe has proposed.

Gosh - I never thought I would say it but there we go!

Yes, I think a neutral venue for the Davis Cup Final ( and possibly SFs too ) could be a real issue atmosphere wise as Bob has alluded to and the chosen venue and court surface is likely to be preferable to one finalist over the other.

Of course, as it exists, the chosen final court is very much going to be preferable to one finalist over the other - ie the home team. But that home and away atmosphere is definitely a plus for the Davis Cup and one kind of accepts ending up with an away tie in at least it is based on a clear principle of alternating home and away ties against your opponent or draw by lot if no history. That I think teams can more live with rather than ending up on a chosen unsuitable for them neutral venue.

Re the Laver Cup I must admit I had grave misgivings about it, but from all accounts it seems to have been a success on a number of levels. Hopefully the various parties, ITF, ATP, players etc can come together and pool together what has been learned from both ongoing Davis Cup issues and the inaugural Laver Cup for the good of international team tennis. We certainly don't need any war.

They've also announced today that the number of players in a team will increase from 4 to 5 - finally, a good idea in among all the stupid ones.

Smudge226 wrote:

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Leon to name 5man team tomorrow according to this article.
Kedders could well be on standby and miss the main squad.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/kyle-edmunds-dismal-form-could-cost-him-a-place-in-davis-cup-finals-team-fdqr3w5th

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Four of the five team members announced:  Andy, Dan, Jamie & Neal.  Kyle not named, but according to the Beeb, the door remains open.  Everything will hang on his performance in Vienna this week.  If he bombs, it's a toss-up between him & Cam.