Week 47 - Davis Cup Finals - Madrid, Spain - (Indoor, Hard).

indiana · Tennis legend

Week 47 - Davis Cup Finals - Madrid, Spain - (Indoor, Hard).

indiana · Tennis legend

seagull wrote:
True and I'm sure it gives the home players a boost..But France, Australia and USA (and until Andy GB), have not had a player capable of winning a GS for many years, so amount of noise can make that happen. Having said that the way Nadal was playing probably would have won it anywhere in the world.

Maybe, but I'm with you that for a team event like the Davis Cup home advantage has to help, that support is a big reason why teams wanted home advantage ( and "advsntage" is the word routinely used ), in the old home & away ties, quite apart from surface choice, which I accept Spain didn't have here. But if it was to be that surface, they'ed want it to be in Spain every tine!

In Slams, while mostly very welcome, it is quite clear that at times the extra backing is a burden to some of the individuals, especially these with negative histories at home.

And while recognising the sheer genius of Rafe, including some clutch points that had very little ( arguably nothing ) to do with being at home, overall it was surely a boost. Was it the ultimate difference this week? - questionable given how close it was say vs GB.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Spain where favourites , one Russia lost Medvedev and zverev wasnt playing, quite clearly . They would have been favourites regardless, playing at home was just a bonus. I imagine setting up for a new venue each year will be costly and can imagine a change every 2-3 years. Having said that, that was the plan with the o2. Ten years later...

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

With apologies to andy for doubting him. I got it wrong

www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/tennis/article-7724371/Andy-Murray-reveals-injury-scare-pelvic-area-left-sidelined-Davis-Cup-action.html

Smudge226 · Club Coach

The format should be 16 teams in groups of 4 to provide the 3group matches the fans can bank on travelling for as in any football tournament. The 3sets format was fine and singles players then taking to dubs is good and adds rather than takes away. I only see the attendance as an issue. Hosting it over two full wkends and the week days between (9days), rather than 7days would ease timetable and nothing lost to start Sat rather than Mon. Concessions for knockout nations fans who stay is the way to do it. I.e. you buy a tournament ticket with concession. Buy 3 group matches gets you knockout phase free etc.

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

Smudge226 wrote:
The format should be 16 teams in groups of 4 to provide the 3group matches the fans can bank on travelling for as in any football tournament. The 3sets format was fine and singles players then taking to dubs is good and adds rather than takes away. I only see the attendance as an issue. Hosting it over two full wkends and the week days between (9days), rather than 7days would ease timetable and nothing lost to start Sat rather than Mon. Concessions for knockout nations fans who stay is the way to do it. I.e. you buy a tournament ticket with concession. Buy 3 group matches gets you knockout phase free etc.

Certainly some ideas worth considering there. If I could add one more idea. By my calculations, with your idea of 16 teams in groups of 4 over 9 days, if there was a 4th match court, that would mean only one match per court, per day. Immediately all the scheduling problems and late nights issues have been resolved.

Could Madrid do that ? In the main structure there are only 3 stadium courts. But outside, they put up a huge "bubble" tent which housed the practice courts. It would not be perfect solution, but certainly something like that could be used as a court with a 1000 or so spectators. There is plenty of space outside. When they play the Master's Series event in May, there are the 3 stadium courts and about 8 other outdoor courts all of which have temporary stands put up.

There was also another indoor practice court there last week in a separate building on the same site, but a peak through the window suggest maybe not enough room for temporary stands to be erected in there for spectators,

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Bob in Spain wrote:
Smudge226 wrote:
The format should be 16 teams in groups of 4 to provide the 3group matches the fans can bank on travelling for as in any football tournament. The 3sets format was fine and singles players then taking to dubs is good and adds rather than takes away. I only see the attendance as an issue. Hosting it over two full wkends and the week days between (9days), rather than 7days would ease timetable and nothing lost to start Sat rather than Mon. Concessions for knockout nations fans who stay is the way to do it. I.e. you buy a tournament ticket with concession. Buy 3 group matches gets you knockout phase free etc.
Certainly some ideas worth considering there. If I could add one more idea. By my calculations, with your idea of 16 teams in groups of 4 over 9 days, if there was a 4th match court, that would mean only one match per court, per day. Immediately all the scheduling problems and late nights issues have been resolved.
Could Madrid do that ? In the main structure there are only 3 stadium courts. But outside, they put up a huge "bubble" tent which housed the practice courts. It would not be perfect solution, but certainly something like that could be used as a court with a 1000 or so spectators. There is plenty of space outside. When they play the Master's Series event in May, there are the 3 stadium courts and about 8 other outdoor courts all of which have temporary stands put up.
There was also another indoor practice court there last week in a separate building on the same site, but a peak through the window suggest maybe not enough room for temporary stands to be erected in there for spectators,

I have seen discussions around another venue in Madrid being considered as well as Caja Majica, as well as the idea of yours above, Bob.

Another option, which may also help with crowds is to make it a 10 day event - ie 6 days of round robin on 4 courts (4 x4 team groups), then 2 days of quarter finals, semis and then final. Group A and B could play Friday, Sun, Tues and have cross over quarterfinals on thursday, Groups C and D would be Sat, Mon, Wed and QF on Fri.

Another option I have seen mooted is to have a days break between groups and quarterfinals to allow fans to know when their team will play and organise tickets etc for QF's onwards...

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

JonH comes home wrote:
Bob in Spain wrote:
Smudge226 wrote:
The format should be 16 teams in groups of 4 to provide the 3group matches the fans can bank on travelling for as in any football tournament. The 3sets format was fine and singles players then taking to dubs is good and adds rather than takes away. I only see the attendance as an issue. Hosting it over two full wkends and the week days between (9days), rather than 7days would ease timetable and nothing lost to start Sat rather than Mon. Concessions for knockout nations fans who stay is the way to do it. I.e. you buy a tournament ticket with concession. Buy 3 group matches gets you knockout phase free etc.
Certainly some ideas worth considering there. If I could add one more idea. By my calculations, with your idea of 16 teams in groups of 4 over 9 days, if there was a 4th match court, that would mean only one match per court, per day. Immediately all the scheduling problems and late nights issues have been resolved.
Could Madrid do that ? In the main structure there are only 3 stadium courts. But outside, they put up a huge "bubble" tent which housed the practice courts. It would not be perfect solution, but certainly something like that could be used as a court with a 1000 or so spectators. There is plenty of space outside. When they play the Master's Series event in May, there are the 3 stadium courts and about 8 other outdoor courts all of which have temporary stands put up.
There was also another indoor practice court there last week in a separate building on the same site, but a peak through the window suggest maybe not enough room for temporary stands to be erected in there for spectators,
I have seen discussions around another venue in Madrid being considered as well as Caja Majica, as well as the idea of yours above, Bob.

I posted this reponse to a comment by Jan on Saturday:

There's a good analysis of the format & its faults & five possible ways of improving it (e.g. use of a second venue - the Wizink Center in the north of the city - as a way of resolving the scheduling problem) in Stu Fraser's The Slice column on the Times site (behind a paywall).

Smudge226 · Club Coach

JonH comes home wrote:
With apologies to andy for doubting him. I got it wrong

www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/tennis/article-7724371/Andy-Murray-reveals-injury-scare-pelvic-area-left-sidelined-Davis-Cup-action.html

Andy Murray was on BBC 5Live this morning from around 08.10am onwards being asked about the I jury, his ordeal with pain and the documentary 'Resurfacing' to be televised. They said it was available on the beeb website in BBC Sounds.

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

Interesting follow up by the BBC on the pros and cons of the new DC format.

www.bbc.com/sport/tennis/50541022

One area where I would perhaps disagree with Jamie M is where he says that the empty seats should be given to school children. Nice idea in theory, but I went to Marseille a few years ago - the day someone thought I was Evo's dad, for those that remember - and to fill empty seats they bused in school children to fill the empty seats for free. The problem was, 90% of the them had no interest in the tennis, didn't had no understanding of the etiquette and continued to talk a play video games through the matches. In the end, the umpire and players agreed to ignore the noise and just play through it.

I am all for getting youngsters in for free to encourage tennis, but they have to be interested in being there in the first place. Otherwise it is counterproductive.

My report from Marseille that day.

britishtennis.activeboard.com/t56733276/week-8-atp-250-marseille-hard/