The Davis Cup’s new format continues to be scrutinised following Italy’s third consecutive title victory in Bologna.
Italy defeated Spain in the Davis Cup final after Matteo Berrettini and Flavio Cobolli picked up victories over Jaume Munar and Pablo Carreno Busta.
The best-of-three tie was over before the doubles players could represent their country and it’s thrown up a glaring issue with the new format.
The Davis Cup absolutely needs to address it’s scoring format after an issue continued following Italy’s victory.
The Davis Cup needs to return to a best-of-five format
The Davis Cup format change in 2019 saw the end of home and away ties from the quarter-finals onward and introduced a best-of-three format rather than the traditional best-of-five.
The latter has brought up a real problem, as no final since the format change has needed the doubles decider.
In the previous format, the doubles match was planted in the middle of the rubber and it often became the most pivotal match of the series.
Doubles matches have more or less been discarded with the change, which is not only a disrespect to the stipulation, but also adds far less drama to proceedings.
A best-of-five format allowed for more dramatic comebacks, as well as tactical play across the weekend of matches.
While this change was likely introduced so key players couldn’t help their nations as one-man teams, the new format is simply not fit for function.
In trying to move away from the one-man team format, the Davis Cup has essentially excluded doubles players completely.
The Davis Cup must revert to a best-of-five format in order to revert back to what made the tournament special to begin with.
The other change the Davis Cup could make
While the new format has been unpopular with players and fans, there has been another change touted for the Davis Cup.
Many players, including Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, have called for the tournament to be less frequent.
Sinner said: “What I could see potentially in the future is having Davis Cup throughout two years, so you can also set up the semifinals in the beginning of the year and the final at the end of the year somewhere.”
The Davis Cup has to make a change… which is your preference?
Alcaraz, meanwhile, concurred with his latest rival: “I think playing every year is not as good as it might be if you’re playing every two or three years.”
The Davis Cup becoming more infrequent would not only help players with their stacked schedule, but it would also make the tournament feel much more special.
Players and fans would be more invigorated by the prospect of representing their country if they didn’t need to do it at the end of every gruelling season.
