British Tennis Forum - Celebrating 20 Years!

JonH comes home wrote:

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GAMEOVER wrote:

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9vicman wrote:

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JonH comes home wrote:

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Its never had the profile the DC has. The DC was built on the back of epic 3 day, 5 rubbers, best of 5 sets, home crowd support baying for their team. Ive seen GB men play Finland at Bristol, Zimbabwe at Crystal Palace, France at Queens, Austria at Wimbledon; and enjoyed every minute of those in that format.

And in that format, it easily withstood not having the best team playing on occasion; the tension and crowd stopped that being a big issue. And 5 rubbers gives you a chance of not missing your top player as much.

BJK never really grew the home and away thing , most of its early years , through to not many years ago where played as one week events with 32 teams taking part in one venue - we hosted the event on grass at Eastbourne in the 70s and Nottingham on hardcourts in the 80s or maybe it was 90s. That format never grew that feeling that came from home or away ties; all due respect, Bulgaria v Canada in Eastbourne doesnt cut it. And best of 3 runners never lets the tension build, and best of 3 sets ditto.

So its never built the reputation or mystique even that DC had. Sadly, DC has lost a lot of that with the new format.

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Some of the week-long Federation Cups (63-94) were a great success. In 1991, over 70,000 fans came to Nottingham and Princess Diana was the patron. In a way, it's easier to promote a 32 team event as a festival of tennis.

The reason the Davis Cup format changed was that there was decreasing interest in home and away finals outside the two competing nations. Sure an amazing spectacle for the fans in the stadium, and people watching at home from the two countries involved, but the rest of the world wasn't interested. With eight teams involved, you've lost a lot of the magic, but definitely more international interest. 

 

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 Following on from  previous comments Britain hosted European qualifying zone  for the Federation Cup (as it was then )at Nottingham  in 1993 on hard courts. GB was in a pool of 5 countries  with the top 2 to make the knock out  stage of qualifying. In the actual event GB had no problem qualifying with us winning all the  matches  at the pool stage  and final qualifying. We were represented in singles by Monique Javer and Clare Wood. Julie Salmon and Amanda Grunfeld played in the doubles as well as Clare Wood. Hard to believe that this week of tennis was free!  Some talents were playing there including future French champion Iva Majoli and Grand Slam doubles champions Larisa Neiland and Cara Black. Although she won all her matches Monique Javer never represented team GB again. Jo Durie replacing her for the finals. The finals were held on clay in Frankfurt Germany but we drew Spain with Sanchez and Martinez in the 1st round and were well beaten. Spain went on to win the event but hosts Germany were beaten in the 1st round by Australia with Nicole Provis beating Steffi Graf. 

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But in 1991, as Vicman said, we hosted a 32 team world group at Nottingham, also on the hardcourts, which was the Fed Cup all in one place.  

Jon I know we hosted the 1991 event as I was there. I was only adding to the discussion in that we held the qualifying at Nottingham in 1993. Tennis has changed a bit since those days.