Davis Cup in Italy

Last time Italy won the Davis Cup, which was the first, was in 1976. Italy did feature couple of times in the final lately. Considering Davis Cup is 123 years old, Italian performance is lean. Its neighbouring countries France, Spain and Switzerland have better records.

Deviation from original format

In the original five-set format, a nation to be successful, a team must have two good players for Singles and a strong Doubles combination. Very demanding. The new format evolved after the ATP players and officials showed reluctance towards Davis Cup. The new 16-nation league and knockout format in one location is getting more acceptance among top end players. What more they are three set tiebreak format. Up to eight ties in a week. Not easy.

Janick Sinner achieves Nicola Pietranjeli’s feat

This year’s final was in Malaga, Spain a week ago. Most of the Singles players in every team had ranking in the ATP. Unlike an individual event, the responsibility weighs on players when they play for the nation.

Italy had and has some of best aesthetic players Nicola Pietranjeli ’s tennis often described as poetic. Having seen him play, I must admit his elegance was appealing. As good as Roger Federer at his best. Pietranjela gave Italy the first Davis Cup in 1976. In total Pietranjeli provided Italy with 120 Singles and Doubles Davis Cup wins. Janick Sinner did this for Italy in 2023 Davis Cup final. It included a win against world’s number one Novak Djokovic in the quarter-final.

Sinner’s Origin

Sinner came through ATP New-Gen talent fostering programme. It was criticised at the inception but over a time, has given ATP very good number of players. ATP, a professional body moved into this after they found national level development, falls short for professional tennis. ATP has the resources and the tournament structure to accommodate this high-end development.

Italians are clay court specialists like the Spaniards and French. It is their influence that made South American countries take to tennis on clay. Today in any Davis Cup final there will be South American teams.

Australian Challenge

Australia was the finalist in Spain against Italy. They reached the final with considerable effort. Lleyton Hewitt was the team captain of Australia. He used all his expertise to reach final. Without a world beater in the team Heweitt’s wits was the best weapon in Australian arsenal. He did well navigating the team to the final. In Davis Cup, captain on court is a quasi-player who can whisper the best tactic to the player on court and at change over.

In the Davis Cup 2023 final, very few players were from ATP Top 10. Most of them had ATP ranking 30s to 50s. This kept the event wide open and gave all teams an equal platform to win. Some Davis Cup captains do the world tour to select his team. With events under the control of ATP, this is not encouraged. Davis Cup is ITF control. [What more ATP has its own Nations Cup – a competition for competition]

Long Wait

Before the finals Australia and Italy have been without a Davis Cup title for decades. Australia won the last Davis Cup 28 years ago and Italy 47 years ago. Both did find their way into the final. Their captains’ canny judgments had significant roles in these achievements. Hewitt and Italian captain Filippo Volandri had to field teams for stage through to the knockout stage final.

Final

Matteo Arnaldi made the first dent to the Australian hopes when he beat Australian Alexie Popyrin. When the scores were set all, Popyrin was well on top. Italian captain Volandri and Arnaldi must have found the weak spots not visible to the spectators. Momentum turned in favour of Italy.

The loss of their first Singles placed Australian on a bad strait. Most of the teams go into Davis Cup calculating to win one Singles and the Doubles, and it works. Doubles is a critical component in three-match Davis Cup format. Australians relied on this advantage.

With Sinner, a Top 5 ATP player of the world playing the second Singles, all Australian hopes dashed. Sinner made very short work of his match winning the second set 6/0.

Future of Davis Cup

ATP does not foster lower end would be players and juniors. This is still ITF realm. All national tennis associations are come under ITF purview. This gives ITF all sponsorship of tennis goods manufacturing and retailing businesses, internationally and locally. Their cash register is the attraction to the local offices also. There is lot of emphasis for would be ATP players to initiate their journey via ITF road. Dwight Davis saw very far when he started Davis Cup, to honour of his mother in 1900.

--George Paldano, European and Asian competition player; Coach German Tennis Federation; National coach Brunei and Sri Lanka; Davis Cup, Federation Cup coach, coached ATP, WTA and ITF ranked players in Europe and Asia; WhatsApp +94775448880-