Davis-Cup tie we should have won
A reduced format of Davis Cup was introduced into Group II by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) this year. It is a format we could capitalise on, as we do not have ATP Tour players. In the new format, matches are best of 3 Sets and the tie is played over 2 days. Unless Singles players are also playing Doubles, the format is easy to accommodate. The depth of good players matters in team events. This is what we do not have, to win.
We played Thailand last Sunday, and lost. On Clay, Thais are not very good. From what I know, Bangkok has only one Clay court. The Thais also lost their Doubles combination, when one of the twins of their internationally famed Doubles combination, the Ratiwatana brothers, was flown back to Thailand sick. Unfortunately, Sri Lanka could not capitalise on these. Thai No.1 Nava-siri-somboon was unbeaten and gave 2 wins for Thailand, and their No.2 Trong Charoen Chaikal won the critical 3rd match to win the tie.
We lost the reverse Singles matches, for no other reason other than poor standard of Tennis and fitness of our players. Creditably, Sharmal Dissanayake won the 2 matches he played, one was a Double. Undergrad Yasitha De Silva plays a good local standard game, but clearly lacks maturity in 3 main areas for international wins. They are overall game strategy to guide the point to point tactics, a reliable second game and many of the critical aspects of court positional play. Physically, the endurance and footwork did not support him enough. At 21, he is on the threshold of a make-or-break tunnel.
In Sri Lanka, with a diminishing number of available courts, as they are being used for commercial coaching, our players are not getting enough on good Clay courts.
Why new format from ITF
Group II of Davis Cup has been never easier than this. For a long time we have been in the snakes-and-ladders game of moving from Group II to III and IV. This is an acceptable trend of nations which started the Davis Cup venture in recent decades. Tennis is being played in Sri Lanka for close to 150 years, and the Davis Cup for over 50 years. We should be firmly in Group II and periodically, appear in Group I. This is the acceptable position for us. Our current position after this loss, is somewhat degrading. We have to play relegation against Indonesia in Colombo on April 7, 8. Unless the next 8 weeks are well spent in preparing the team, especially the second Singles, we will be relegated. This is a sad prediction.
Popularity of the Davis Cup is no more to what it was. Last week, Switzerland lost to Kazakhstan easily. Roger Federer and Wawrinka did not play for Switzerland. Big names of Tennis and Davis Cup are no more together. Davis Cup has lost its priority in the global picture. This has made Davis Cup more of an event of the lesser Tennis Countries. In short, Davis Cup is on a survival battle. Will the Davis Cup be there in another 10 years? The answer is it has only a 50-50 chance of survival. The world of Tennis now belongs to professional bodies WTA and ATP. They are not going to be supportive of Davis Cup.
To overcome this issue, the ITF is now trying to find support for the Davis Cup in Groups II, III and IV countries. This global event needs huge sponsorship. To see what it is, all one has to do is to go to a court where Davis Cup is played. This well-orchestrated stage has the names of their mega sponsors.
Trendsetting World Group
While nations in the lower Group play for promotion, 16 nations in the World Group play for the Davis Cup itself. In the first Round Australia lost to Germany and England lost to Spain. England and Australia are Grand Slam countries. This means they are two of the original Davis Cup winners. In the last 50 years they have not kept up their cutting edge over other nations.
In the case of Australia, they thrived on the Grass court game of Serve and Volley, which was their trademark. For some unknown reason, they started to copy Bjorn Borg’s Swedish ground-stroke module of the ’70′s, a bad move. Long-drawn rallies of the ‘baseline game’ is not for the Aussie mentality, and for us. This stereotype module of groundstroke-based game burns out players very soon. Federer’s survival this long can be contributed to his strong net game as his second game, while Nadal is paying the price for his over emphasised baseline game.
New sports economy trend
Singapore, Dubai and Qatar are not Tennis playing or sporting countries. Yet they are the venue of mega Tennis events. What this means they have abandoned player development stream and got on to the events management stream. We too are stepping into the same trend. It a way this may be the only avenue left for us with Tennis and to keep Tennis. Our player development has turned out to be only for very young age group players. We like in many countries are in eternal childhood Tennis for decades. Events are show biz like no other biz. That is where we are heading.
-George Paldano, Former int. player; Accredited Coach of German Federation; National coach Sri Lanka & Brunei, Davis-Cup, Federation Cup captain/coach– contact 94 77 544 8880 geodano2015@gmail.com –