four ATP-ranked singles players add up to the lowest number is the top-seeded team, and so on. As it will be a biennial event, it seems fair to average the rankings of the previous two years. And since it will be a year-end event, why not announce the teams at the conclusion of The Championships at Wimbledon? Once the 16 four-member teams arrive at the tennis World Cup, they will play knockout ties (there is not enough time for World Cup-like round-robin early rounds) based on seedings determined by the ranking. Each tie will, as today, consist of four singles rubbers and one doubles rubber. But in the interest of making things more interesting, there will be format changes, too, to the ties and rubbers. First, “reverse” singles will be eliminated: A given player can play only one singles rubber per tie (though he can, as now, play doubles, too, in a tie in which he’s playing singles). Andy Murray led Britain to its Davis Cup victory last year, and great for him and Britain. But team tennis should be about team tennis, and limiting the singles play of the dominate players of an era will serve as an equalizer, along with providing a larger role for lesser- known, up-and-coming players. And how about we find a way to limit “dead” rubbers—those meaningless matches on day 3 of Davis Cup ties when one team has already won the first three ties and eliminated the opposing team? Currently the format is: two singles matches on day 1 (typically a Friday); doubles on day 2; reverse singles on day 3. Let’s squeeze a tie into two days, which, with the elimination of reverse singles (and the need for the singles players to have an off day to recover), should not be a problem. Day 1: two singles matches, meaning there must be a day 2 to clinch. Day 2: two singles matches (with fresh players) and a doubles match wedged between them. Yes, day 2 could still be an abbreviated day, but there will be at least one tie, and probably more, with a limit on using your star player for a second singles match.
“We wanted Yank heads to show that the, shall we say, mature Aussies were still breathing,” Rod Laver wrote after, at 35, helping reclaim the Davis Cup from the U.S. in 1973. Pictured with John Newcombe (left) and captain Neale Fraser (center). ap photo
a year-end, ten-day-long competition at a neutral site, chosen from among bidders and moved among countries and continents. This end-of-year event will not necessarily mean indoor tennis (think Buenos Aires, where fans love Davis Cup) and, in this day and age, indoor tennis need not mean hardcourt tennis. The nation hosting the event will choose the surface. How to determine the teams? Let’s borrow from the Olympics and choose based on players’ ATP rankings at a given point in the tennis season. The country whose top
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