U.S. Davis Cup Captain Jim Courier has some innovative ideas of how to enhance interest in the tennis Davis and Fed Cup.
“I think it’s pretty clear that the Davis Cup format, which was built quite a while ago, is no longer as popular or as powerful as it could be. It certainly should be condensed into, in my opinion, a two-week format for at least the big boys,” Courier said during a conference call regarding the competition, held along with U.S. Fed Cup Captain Mary Jo Fernandez.
“It should be combined with the Fed Cup, for that matter, so it becomes in effect the fifth Grand Slam, not only from an attention standpoint, but a player-attendance standpoint,” Courier said.
“The system is broken, clearly, from my standpoint. It’s not broken from the ITF’s standpoint, because they still make money,” Courier said. “What I would contend is they could make a lot more money than they currently do and that would allow them to help spread the growth of the game with the extra funds they would receive.”
The finals of the 2011 Davis Cup are from Dec. 2 to Dec. 4, but first-round play was between March 4 and March 6. Between the nine-month gap were the quarterfinals (July 8 to July 10) and semis (Sept. 16 to Sept. 18).
“When we played in March in the first round, now we’re in December, two ties in between, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that that doesn’t make sense as far as building interest,” Courier said.
The 2012 Fed Cup starts in February (4th and 5th) while the Davis Cup starts the week after.
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