Concern Growing About Top Players Skipping Davis Cup Play

Written by: Staff on 17th February 2012

Concern Growing About Top Players Skipping Davis Cup Play

Andy Murray of Great Britain returns to Novak Djokovic of Serbia during their men's single semi-final match at the Australian Open Grand Slam tennis tournament in Melbourne, Australia, 27 January 2012. EPA/BARBARA WALTON |

Faced with the evidence of last weekend when three of the world’s elite quartet of male players opted against representing their nations in important Davis Cup matches, the tennis authorities know something needs to be done to regenerate interest in tennis’ longest standing team competition.

The International Tennis Association and the ATP World Tour have long debated the pros and cons of awarding ranking points for Davis Cup victories but anomalies are everywhere and not easily resolved.

While John Isner, playing in the World Group for the United States against Switzerland, was rewarded with 40 ATP ranking points for his upset of former world no.1 Roger Federer in Fribourg, Britain’s Dan Evans was playing a level lower in the Euro/African Zone Group One.

Although Evans, ranked a lowly 273 in the world and clearly in need of any help he can get to boost his ranking, received no points despite scoring two creditable victories against opponents from Slovakia far higher up the ATP World Tour pecking order.

World no.4 Andy Murray, the man Evans replaced in the British line-up, was quick to point out the injustice of the current system. “It’s not something I think about when I make a decision whether or not to play,” said Murray.

“But that doesn’t alter my opinion. We had a young player, Dan Evans, who did really well and won both his singles but has a low ATP ranking. He really could have done with some points. But the system doesn’t allow for that. It needs to

Murray opted against playing to heal some minor injuries following the Australian Open and spend time training in Florida new coach Ivan Lendl at the Delray Tennis Center. But his focus remained on justice for his compatriot and he said: “It is, basically, unfair.”

“Not everyone has the luxury of playing Davis Cup in the World Group so of course it’s unfair. I didn’t like the decision when it was made but it has never really come up for discussion in our player meetings because there has been so much else going on.”

Clearly there is a need for the ITF and ATP World Tour to revisit the subject and well-known players are being punished because they play for low key nations. Marcos Baghdatis, once no.8 in the world and currently no.44 won all three of his matches for Cyprus in their 3-2 win over Morocco but unfortunately for him the match was part of the Euro/Africa Zone Group Two.

Therefore Baghdatis received no points and in fact his ranking dropped three places.