FED cup

Salmon · Tennis legend

RE: FED cup

Mervatron · Masters Series Champion

Bit of a let down really after the great start.

We should have beat Luxembourg really but more than that would have been out of this world.

tennisbrain · Club Coach

i couldnt find wat bally has missed by playing fed cup but she must of dropped alot of points because the new rankings today monday24th april she is nearly in 900

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Just wondered if people had been following the 'illegal' court saga of the court currently being used for the Fed Cup final.

Seemingly, it's too fast.

Court Pace has to be between 20 CPRs (the slowest) and 50 CPRs (the fastest). And the Czech court is 52.

They measure it like this:

www.itftennis.com/technical/courts/court-testing/court-pace.aspx

All curious stuff . . .

The Optimist · ATP qualifying

Wow ..... hands up who knew any of that stuff ....??!!

AliBlahBlah · All-time great

Coup Droit wrote:
Just wondered if people had been following the 'illegal' court saga of the court currently being used for the Fed Cup final.

Seemingly, it's too fast.

Court Pace has to be between 20 CPRs (the slowest) and 50 CPRs (the fastest). And the Czech court is 52.

They measure it like this:

www.itftennis.com/technical/courts/court-testing/court-pace.aspx

All curious stuff . . .

The courts construction was finished late (which is no doubt used as 'evidence' of malice of forethought on the part of the Czechs), and then the ITF were slow to measure the court and verify the measurement. After which there was not sufficient time to replace it.

The Czechs will be fined; the result will (almost certainly) stand.

Some will call this a breach of the rules, and call for the Czechs to be defaulted and the tie awarded to Germany. Strictly speaking I suppose that would be the technically correct course of action, but it would certainly leave a sour taste in the mouth.

There's no doubt that both Kvitova & Safarova would like the court as fast as possible. Petra, especially, gets exponentially more effective the faster a court gets, and she has been superb, talismanic even, for the Czech over their recent period of dominance in the competition - If she can be kept winning she carries the team along with her.

For the Germans though, both Kerber & Lisicki would also prefer the fastest possible court; on balance over the two players,arguably even more so that their Czech counterparts.

The overall advantage of this small extra speed is certainly not equal to something like the randomness of home court advantage for the final generally - Rafa's Spain on clay - ugh!

It could all be solved by the ITF having a rule that the playing surface must be completed and ratified, say, 6 weeks prior to the match date.

JIT court construction is rather becoming a thing for Fed & Davis cup, and it keeps throwing up problems - eg. we all remember the GB vs. Italy Davis Cup court fiasco, which stemmed from the same root cause; ad hoc temporary and untested courts.

Sadly, it's just more ammunition for the detractors of Fed & Davis Cup to use to suggest the events are outdated and irrelevant, and should be scrapped. The WTA are already committed to a new team competition over the next few years - an unholy hybrid of WTT and Fed/Davis/Hopman Cup formats. The ITF shouldn't be providing the rope for people looking to hang them.

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

A few random thoughts on this:

I actually quite like seeing tennis played on a fast court. I only saw bits of the tie but Kvitova v Kerber was a really entertaining match and it's good to see a court where players are rewarded for their aggressive shots. I'm not saying all tennis should be played on super fast courts, but more of a balance would be nice (especially in the women's game where there is less of a risk of serve taking over).

Interesting to know that there is a measure of court pace (CPR). It would be good if this was public knowledge for each tournament, not just on the one occasion the court is outside of the legal range.

It's hard to avoid courts being prepared just in time for cup ties as there will be in event venues that will be used for something else. Maybe a fair punishment in this situation would be that the away team get choice of which balls to use or get to choose the order of the ties or something like that.

PaulM · Tennis legend

Kvitova v Kerber was amazing. The contrast between that court and the mud-like hard court in London was unreal. Indoor hardcourts should be fast, the homoginisation of surfaces on the tour (and slowing them down in general) has been a really sad development over the years.

insomniacfolder · Challenger level

Kerber vs.Kvitova was a fantastic match, and a fantastic occasion.

People try to say the Fed Cup is irrelevant, or that no one cares about it anymore.

Watch this point.

The whole match was pretty much like that. It was glorious.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

The ITF has just doubled prize money for the Fed Cup.

Plus third-set tie-breaks. And teams of five.

www.fedcup.com/en/news/290263.aspx

JonH · All-time great

Well, the ITF may have doubled the prizemoney but it isnt having any positive impact on the players taking part in the final. The USA team is decimated and (with all due respect to the team selected) doesnt really deserve to be called a USA team; shocking really on one level but shows the esteem to which this event is held. Pliskova dropped out of Czech team and they are clearly still too strong for the USA I would anticipate.

I have to say the Fed Cup at World level underwhelms me and I actually feel in this case that some sort of one week long World Cup style event as per new Davis Cup may in fact be a boost for the Fed Cup as an event

wolf · Tennis legend

USA have three top 70 players and a top 15 doubles players, doesn't seem as bad as people are making out. Although with Czech being at home I would expect them to win comfortably.

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

JonH wrote:
Well, the ITF may have doubled the prizemoney but it isnt having any positive impact on the players taking part in the final. The USA team is decimated and (with all due respect to the team selected) doesnt really deserve to be called a USA team; shocking really on one level but shows the esteem to which this event is held. Pliskova dropped out of Czech team and they are clearly still too strong for the USA I would anticipate.

I have to say the Fed Cup at World level underwhelms me and I actually feel in this case that some sort of one week long World Cup style event as per new Davis Cup may in fact be a boost for the Fed Cup as an event

I hope they revamp the Fed Cup to a week long event and I wouldn't be opposed to a joint event, like 2 separate competitions but at the same venue in the same week.

JonH · All-time great

wolf wrote:
USA have three top 70 players and a top 15 doubles players, doesn't seem as bad as people are making out. Although with Czech being at home I would expect them to win comfortably.

I guess my point was compared to the team they could play with all of their top players (Williams, x 2, Stephens, keys etc).

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

Even young Anisimova involved would have added a different dimension for the neutral. She was injured for 4 months from Miami to San Jose and has only 11 tournaments included in her ranking, yet is still comfortably in the top 100. She has reached a WTA final this year and already has a win over Kvitova in a very big tournament. I like Riske, solid enough player, loves the grass and her win over Perrin at Surbiton effectively secured a 6th GB Wimbledon wildcard, but she's not really spectacular.

Collins burst on the scene with that Indian Wells showing and particularly the Miami semi final a couple of weeks later, but she has done not a lot since and has lost 8 of her last 10 matches coming into this.