This past weekend’s Federation Cup, or Fed Cup for those in the tennis know, experienced an unprecedented cache of publicity. Twitter lit up with tweets, and #fedcup became a top trending term on the social media platform. Gifs and memes popped up all over the net as tennis fans and patriots alike took to the net to comment on the matches of the day.
What lead to all the unusual social media fanfare? It wasn’t Serena’s struggle on the Italian “argilla”, and it wasn’t Martina Hingis’ return to singles play against her modern doppelganger Aga Radwanska– it was a simple denial of a handshake. Genie Bouchard’s simple opting out of a good luck hand shake with Alexandra Dulgheru lit up the social media world wide like a summertime lightning storm. Although the gesture (or lack of good will gesture) brought attention to the ratings/interest of this lagging event, the fact that it took a diss of minor proportions, when compared to other sports, to bring such attention shows the problems facing tennis events like Fed and Davis Cup.
Fed Cup and Davis Cup, the World Cups of professional tennis, find themselves in a precarious position. Lack of awareness from the casual fan, coupled with lack of support for the grueling schedule from the tennis players themselves is causing Fed Cup and Davis Cup organizers to ask themselves difficult questions about the future and relevance of the events. This past weekend Serena Williams joined the growing list of tennis professionals calling for organizers to change the Fed/Davis Cup format to an every other year schedule, instead of the annual schedule it follows now.
“Ideally it would be great if it was every two years, just because I want to support it all the time and I don’t get to support it as much as I can because we play and train 40-45 weeks out of the year, ” Serena commented during the Fed Cup loss to Italy. “So it’s kind of hard to continue to do that. Especially if you want to support your country. You feel so bad when you can’t.”
Roger Federer has made no qualms about vocalizing his concerns about how the grueling schedule of professional tennis and the schedule of Davis Cup aren’t compatible. After leading Switzerland to its first ever Davis Cup Championship in 2014, Federer made it very clear that he would not be playing in 2015.
“I always feel there is so much guilt put on you from the federation or from the ITF more so than anybody else. So I’m happy I was able to finally tick that off and do it altogether, ” Federer commented in Dubai at the beginning of 2015 when asked about the stresses of playing Davis Cup.
Stars like Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, and Maria Sharapova have all voiced concerns of how these events affect the body and preparations for Grand Slam title runs. Although Fed and Davis Cup has seen its top stars participate over the past five years, their participation has been very sporadic. After a year in which tennis fans were enthralled by Roger’s and Stan’s quest to bring the trophy to Switzerland, we were now forced to watch a Swiss team try and defend that title without any of their star players present. The championship roster had changed completely over the course of a few weeks, and general sports fans, who may have been brought into the Davis Cup from the hype and tension of 2014 cup are left disillusioned and dissatisfied with the roster of 2015.
Fans like continuity of rosters–no matter the sport. Spectators do not want to pay good money for tickets to Davis Cup ties where the top players may or may not be playing. Fed Cup faces the same issues. If these events want to maintain, or gain, relevance in the ever demanding sports entertainment market, they will have to find ways to garner the services and participation of these top level names. Without the likes of Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, Sharapova, and Serena, the legitimacy of these “world champion teams” will be viewed with an asterisk in the minds of tennis fans. When a nation wins the world championship or world cup of a sport, fans want to believe they beat the best to be named the best. Without the top ranked players, this is impossible to believe.
As Serena pointed out to the associated press, The International Tennis Federation (ITF) must look at ways to remarket and bring life back into what once was a focal point of the tennis calendar.
“I think the Fed Cup is doing great, Davis Cup obviously does great, but it’s always fun to try to re-market it and just sell it to a different crowd.”
Many changes have been discussed by tennis commentators, journalists, and fans. The one with the most support seems to be changing the competition to a biannual event–giving enough time between championships for the top players to take a break and find new energy for the international event. This would also allow time for fans to become hungry for the event and cut down on seasons empty of the top athletes. Others have argued that Davis and Fed Cup should expand to 16 countries with no relegation group–allowing all teams to play against each other in a host city to help give the event even more exposure and intensity–an almost Ryder Cup quality. ITF president Ricci Bitti has already suggested playing the Davis Cup finals at a neutral venue for 2015 and has altered the match schedule for this year. However, if the ITF is serious about injecting new life into these events which involve countries well beyond the top sphere of tennis success, they must listen to the players (who they need for marketing and publicity), as well as the data gathered from sponsorship and viewership, to make the bold moves necessary to bring these once glorious and important events back into the limelight of the tennis world.
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