‘Ranking points do not matter to players while playing for their country’ – ITF president David Haggerty on the possibility of points being awarded for Davis Cup
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Davis Cup is one of the oldest tournaments in tennis history. It’s a premier event of men’s tennis, where players compete to represent their countries. Started as a challenge between Great Britain and the United States of America in 1900, over a century later, the tournament witnessed the participation of over 100 nations. The organization and management of the Davis Cup tournament come under the purview of the International Tennis Federation (ITF).
Davis Cup is organized annually, involving teams from participating countries competing in a knock-out format. The 18 best national teams are assigned to the World Group and compete for the trophy. The nations which are not in the World Group compete in one of three regional zones (Americas, Asia/Oceania, and Europe/Africa).
Davis Cup has been a long-running tournament, its age at par with that of the Grand Slams. This kind of longevity requires the constant evolution of rules to keep up with the changing times. These rules are debated, discussed, and implemented by the ITF. The Federation is currently headed by David Haggerty. A business graduate from GWSB, Haggerty has been at the helm of ITF since September 2015. Prior to that, he served as the president of USTA and is currently a member of the IOC.
In a recent interview post at the end of Davis Cup 2022, the possibility of points being awarded for the Davis Cup was raised. In response to this line of questioning, president Haggerty said “With the existing agreement with the ATP, this possibility exists. What we’ve seen in the past is that when you play for your country, you don’t look at ranking points. It’s something that doesn’t matter to the players. It’s a conversation we could have anytime, but we think it’s unnecessary.”
Haggerty was referring to the current events of ATP, with the upcoming inaugural edition of the United Cup, Davis Cup, once again becoming the only men’s event. And ITF has been in discussion with the ATP to come to an agreement that allocates Davis Cup a more important place in the calendar. The format would potentially remain unchanged, with a qualifying phase, a group stage, and a final phase. These negotiations also involved the possibility of points being rewarded for the event, but no concrete decision has emerged.
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Davis Cup: The Current Format
The final phase of the event involving the Top 18 teams is spread over 4 weekends in the year. Each elimination round between competing nations is held in one of the countries and is played as the best of five matches (4 singles, 1 double). The ITF determines the host countries for all matchups before each year’s tournament.
Teams in the World Group play a four-round elimination tournament. Teams are seeded based on a ranking system released by the ITF, considering previous years’ results. The defending champion and runner-up are always the top two seeds in the tournament.
Between 2009 and 2015, the Davis Cup offered ATP points to participants. While that might not have been renewed, a deal signed between ITF and tournament promoter Kosmos has resulted in the Davis Cup being officially included in the ATP Calendar from 2023.
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Aradhana Nayak
(189 Articles Published)