South Club’s thumbs up for new era
In its centenary year, the Calcutta South Club stays a tennis theatre rooted in tradition complete with a low-slung pavilion of 1920s vintage. It is often called the Wimbledon of the East. Here, you can run into members like 69-year-old Sujoy Ghosh reliving Ramanathan Krishnan’s epic comeback against Brazil’s Thomas Koch like it was yesterday and not December 1966. And into yesteryear stalwarts such as Akhtar Ali, who first played on these courts in December 1954, Naresh Kumar, who turned 90 in December, and Jaideep Mukerjea standing in front of a picture of him and Premjit Lall in tennis whites.
On Friday and Saturday, the South Club was among the 12 venues across the world that saw the metamorphosis of the 119year-old Davis Cup, according to India captain Mahesh Bhupathi one of the gruelling competitions in sport.
The transformation was put in process after a group fronted by Gerard Pique weighed in with an offer of $3 billion over 25 years to the International Tennis Federation which owns the Davis Cup. The irony of doing away with a format that made Pique a footballer of international renown such
as home-and-away matches in a league that runs from August to May is inescapable but equally compelling perhaps is the need for survival.
Stars give the Davis Cup a miss — world No. 15 Fabio Fognini wasn’t here and Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have played zero ties against each other though Switzerland and Spain met in 2007 and 2010 — and that doesn’t help keep the tournament relevant.
It was also one of the reasons why the format was changed, said ITF referee Wayne McKewen. “When you possibly have to play three best of five set matches in three days, it can be very taxing . It almost takes you out of the following week. So, reducing it to two days, and having Sunday off gives players greater ability to be able to play the following week which was one of their main concerns,” said the Australian Open referee who is here to officiate this Davis Cup tie.
On Saturday, McKewen found support from Andreas Seppi. “I always liked playing best-of-five matches but I’m getting older. So for me, I think it’s better to play shorter matches.”
The jury may still be out on this but at the old South Club, with Bhupathi weighing in as well, there were more takers for the new order.