Davis Cup 2020- India

[Florian Buechting]

Thanks for your nice words

Here are my day 2 words and pictures: https://flyctory.com/2021/09/19/davis-c ... 2021-day2/

There will be some practice pictures on my website as well tomorrow, but it is more or less a picture page with gallery. Generally, I have to say that Finland really felt like a Davis Cup tie, despite social distancing, weird ITF rules (one thing was that as accredited press I should write a journal about all people who are closer than one meter for 15 minutes to me - but nobody tells you about what time interval and what do to with it...), best-of-three two day format etc. Davis Cup creates heroes - this time, the key hero was Otto Virtanen and wore the Finnish flag. I fully agree to what Bops said to ITD what we need singles players. I would even say we need singles heroes. Davis Cup is still a good place to draw attention to tennis and to Indian tennis players. But it is another type of tournament. If you play "ATP Tour Mode", you may loose against a player which is in the 400's of ranking.

Would be interesting to ask Leander, Hesh, Somdev, Bops, Ramesh... how they could push themselves to amazing performances when they played for their country instead of for themselves. Is it a matter of team spirit? National pride? Some sort of madness? We need that kind of spirit in the heart of our players again. Will be some tough years. If you are really unlucky, you fall back to Group II. There are some comparably strong teams in there (and some comparably weak ones in Group I). Interesting times. Look forward to our opponent in March 2022. I guess they will select that some time this week...

[PKBasu]

Florian, thanks for your passion and continuing support.
On behalf of Indian Tennis, our profuse apologies for the pathetic, damp squib you witnessed. This was really a thoroughly disgraceful performance.
But of course the bigger tragedy is that the Davis Cup itself has been killed. All that history of over some 120 years will simply be that -- history, gradually forgotten because it has no meaning relative to the present. Unbelievable that a sporting establishment would do that to one of the iconic events that helped spread the support around the world.

[sameerph]

If you are really unlucky, you fall back to Group II. There are some comparably strong teams in there (and some comparably weak ones in Group I). Interesting times. Look forward to our opponent in March 2022. I guess they will select that some time this week...

We will know our next opponent only after November group 1 and group 2 knock out matches which they have added this year as they are transitioning from 18 team final to 16 team final.

So, as of now 20 teams are determined to be in next March's world group 1 playoffs- India, Bolivia, Belarus,Pakistan,Uruguay,Chile, Uzbekistan,Lebanon,New Zealnd, Portugal,Bosnia Herzgovania,Israel, Barbados, Lithuania, Mexico,Poland, Slovenia, South Africa Switzerland andTurkey.

4 more to join them after those knock outs and then 12 seeds among the higher ranked teams will play lower ranked teams in 12 matches next March.

We are among top 2-3 highest ranked teams there. So, should get an easier draw.

[PKBasu]

This is all a pale shadow of the old Davis Cup, with these "qualifier" stages the only link to the past (albeit with 3-set matches rather than 5-setters). Ultimately all that this activity is about is finding a place among the 16 countries that actually play the Davis Cup in a single week. Absolute travesty and charade!

[vparam]

The Davis Cup has been a lost cause for a long time. Even before the recent changes made to the format, it was in decline. My friends who are hard core tennis fans have no idea who and when the US plays. They should do something similar to the Ryder Cup and have it every 2 years. Most of the time the top tennis players skip the Davis Cup due to being tired or need ranking points. This new format of the Davis Cup is even worse. I am really enjoying the Laver Cup. Full house to watch this event.

[Rajiv]

Whatever little meaning this competition has been left with, has been exasperated by having a totally clueless unsuitable non playing Captain.

[PKBasu]

It's an absolute travesty to have Rohit Rajpal (a man who never made the top-500 of the ATP rankings) as Davis Cup captain. It just showcases the utter incompetence and indifference to standards of the AITA.

[Rajiv]

But has an uncanny ability to keep every one in good humour, and that is why we have never seen any sort of rebellion / murmurs from any single player (present & past) as we saw previously against some of the DC captains.

[PKBasu]

To be fair, this lack of rebellion also owes to the fact that the Davis Cup has been so thoroughly devalued. Appointing a Davis Cup captain is no longer such a big deal. For most of the top teams, all it involves is a single week of action.

[prasen9]

In theory, the best players do not always make the best coaches and mediocre players sometimes make pretty good coaches, but, in this case, where strategy is the most important contribution of a non-playing captain, perhaps choosing the best available player would be great. Is Somdev not available?