The Italian team once again secured the Davis Cup title.Bild: Imago/Joaquin Corchero
Italy won the Davis Cup for the second year in a row. A great success in the land of the boot, but the competition no longer has anything to do with the Davis Cup of days gone by.
ZGranted: I’m leaning way out of the window. I’m exaggerating. Of course the Davis Cup has value. Just look at Italy. When I spoke to Stefano Semeraro, the editor-in-chief of “Il Tennis Italiano”, the Italian tennis magazine, on the phone before the ATP Finals and asked if he could write a story about Jasmine Paolini, he replied: “Scusi, unfortunately not, here is it Hell break loose.” He was referring to the tennis boom in Italy, which has been going on for a while and has now reached unimagined heights. Jannik Sinner, number one in the world, was crowned ATP world champion for the first time in Turin. The next day the venerable sports daily reported Gazzetta dello Sport on the first 13 (!) pages. A week later in Malaga, Sinner became Davis Cup champion with Italy for the second time in a row. The fact that the Italian women won the Billie Jean King Cup at the same place was the cocoa powder on the tiramisu.
This number shows that things are just as crazy in Italy at the moment as they were in Germany in the 80s, when a certain Boris Becker made the whole Republic Balla-Balla: In the final of the Davis Cup finals (sounds stupid, but it is correct name) saw the match between Sinner and the Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor almost six million people, which corresponds to a market share of around 30 percent – Bella Italia.
Zverev expresses criticism in the Davis Cup
Germany was eliminated in the semi-finals. In the old format, Team Germany got this far in Moscow in 2007. However, the competition back then had nothing to do with the Davis Cup of today. Alexander Zverev says in the tennis MAGAZIN interview (can be read in our new issue, which will be published from December 10th): “As it is now, it’s not a Davis Cup, it’s an exhibition tournament. It’s like a United Cup without points.” I see it the same way. Not much remains of the dramaturgy of days gone by. Two two-set matches, like the one in the semifinals against the Netherlands, are over in a flash. The newly decorated ATP double world champions, Tim Pütz and Kevin Krawietz, did not play at all in two games.
Doubles in the Davis Cup – that was the supreme discipline. Often the nation that was successful in the pairs competition won the entire match. As a reminder: two singles were played on Friday, doubles on Saturday and two singles again on Sunday. You don’t have to be an uninhibited nostalgic to like it.
The format will be further tweaked in 2025. Home and away games will be played again in the first two rounds. But the finals remain the same – a shame.
