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By Richard Pagliaro | @Tennis_Now | Tuesday, November 28, 2023
Devoted Davis Cup competitor Lleyton Hewitt says the competitors has been diminished by three main mis-steps.
Captain Hewitt led Australia to its second straight Davis Cup last final weekend the place it fell to Italy.
Jannik Sinner gained the ultimate eight straight video games crushing Alex de Minaur 6-3, 6-0 sealing Italy’s first Davis Cup championship in 47 years with a 2-0 conquer Australia within the Davis Cup last in Malaga, Spain.
Requested to evaluate the state of Davis Cup in the present day, Hewitt cited three irritating adjustments he asserts have gutted the center of Davis Cup.
1. The elimination of home-and-away ties has diminished the electrical energy and energetic fan ardour Davis Cup evoked all through its historical past.
2. Decreasing matches from best-of-five units to best-of-three units has drained a number of the dizzying drama from Davis Cup.
3. Staging the Davis Cup finals on a tough courtroom in Malaga, Spain has eradicated the challenges of enjoying on completely different surfaces in several situations making a uniform set of situations that squelch the range Davis Cup was lengthy identified for, Hewitt says.
“Malaga has placed on a terrific occasion by way of what they’ll do with the format that they have,” Hewitt advised the media in Malaga. “Their palms are tied. There is no home-and-away and there is not any 5 units, so it isn’t ideally suited. We’re enjoying on a floor that, yeah, I am actually sick of enjoying on, to be trustworthy. That is not what Davis Cup is about. It is enjoying on clay, grass, out of doors components. You recognize, there’s numerous various things.
“Yeah, it is clearly fairly irritating, I believe, that we do not get all of the completely different surfaces and situations all through Davis Cup anymore, and particularly within the large matches, as properly.”
Hewitt, a member of Australia’s Davis Cup championship groups in 1999 and 2003, has been a vocal critic of Davis Cup adjustments lately.
Corridor of Famer Hewitt stays a passionate Davis Cup supporter and advocates returning to home-and-away ties and ranging surfaces for the finals.
“A few of my biggest recollections have been enjoying in Davis Cup semis or finals in entrance of packed homes and it didn’t matter if it was in Australia or away, the ambiance was unimaginable,” Hewitt stated.
Photograph credit score: Mark Peterson/Corleve
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