The first round of Davis Cup and Fed Cup play finished earlier this month and to say the least the results were rather disappointing. Many of the top players opted not to represent their countries in these team events in which players get to represent their countries. Italy for example didn't send Francesca Schiavone, Roberta Vinci, Sara Errani, or Flavia Penitent to compete against the United States, who themselves were without Serena Williams and Sloane Stephens. Maria Sharapova opted to represent her country at the Olympics instead of the Fed Cup, etc. As for the Men things were better in the Davis Cup with Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka representing Switzerland and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Gael Monfils, and Richard Gasquet playing for France, but still, Rafael Nadal didn't compete for Spain and Novak Djokovic didn't compete for Serbia along with fellow countryman Janko Tipsarevic.
The lack of players truly caring about Fed Cup and Davis Cup has been an ongoing problem for tennis, and it isn't entirely the players' fault. With all the matches that these guys have to play, the weeks of Davis Cup and Fed Cup can seem like a rare chance to rest up for a week and relax a bit. Going out to play in a tournament that doesn't count for much towards your own ATP or WTA ranking points and is considered optimal can be hard to get up for. But still, even with that, one would like to think that these players would love to get the chance to represent their countries and show a little patriotism. I don't know what exact changes would help increase Davis Cup and Fed Cup participation, but changes do need to be made.
One guy I know, named Phil Naessens, suggested on his show with me as his guest that the Davis Cup and Fed Cup become compressed into a one or two week event. This suggestion is interesting since the fact that it gets spaced out over the calendar year all the way until December does seem to take steam out of the Davis Cup. Perhaps turning these events into a 5th Grand Slam of sorts would make players become more eager to compete.
In addition to this idea, I think making Davis Cup and Fed Cup play mandatory needs to somehow happen. Mandatory is a bit strong, but at the very least, the ITF could make the consequences of not playing severe enough that players would think twice about not playing in it. Maybe really up the ranking points for it, or give special consideration to players in seeding at Grand Slams based on Davis Cup or Fed Cup participation. Technically speaking, the ITF doesn't have to seed players based on ATP and WTA ranking points. If they wanted to make Davis Cup and Fed Cup participation a heavy part of their seeding selection process they could do it, and they could make players pay for not participating. E.g. Andy Murray could get a top seed at the French Open because he participated in Davis Cup and Nadal did not. Of course, it couldn't be that simple, but maybe him participating ups his seeding by one or two spots. That would make players think twice about choosing to skip Davis Cup and Fed Cup for sure.
In conclusion, the main take away from this is that the Status quo for Fed Cup and Davis Cup is not acceptable. These events need to have the stars of tennis participating. Otherwise it turns into a joke. The entire Russian Fed Cup team consisted of players' names who I hadn't heard of, which says a lot since I'm familiar with at least 300-400 names in tennis since I spend so much time updating people from every tournament on the ATP and WTA tours. Russia's lack of Fed Cup participation was embarrassing, but it was just one instance of an ongoing problem in tennis that needs to change. I hope for the sake of tennis and the spirit of international team competition, changes are made to make Fed Cup and Davis Cup play more appealing and rewarding to those who choose to compete.
---Ben Parker: follow me on twitter @atp_guy
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