Davis Cup: Dominic Thiem has no problem with Davis Cup reform

“Rest in peace” Davis Cup? Many traditionalists have buried the 118-year team competition following the revolutionary reform of 16 August. Austria’s number 1, Dominic Thiem, sees it differently. The ninth in the world rankings views the reduction to a qualification in February and a final tournament in autumn very positively.

I must honestly say I don’t see a problem. I’m looking forward to the new thing,” said Thiem before the US Open in New York. “Everybody’s talking about the big Davis Cup games, but maybe that was one or two. Of the 40 matches in St. Anton in front of 1,000 spectators, nobody talks. The Davis Cup hasn’t suited me in the last few years,” said Thiem, who is once again leading Austria’s team in the “old” mode in the World Group play-off in Graz against Australia from 14 to 16 September.

“The whole mode was bad, in my opinion.” Thiem gives the APA a concrete example of Switzerland. The Swiss had won the Davis Cup for the first time in 2014, led by top stars Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka.

“And next year they competed with (Henri) Laaksonen and (Michael) Lammer, who were ranked 400 or 500, and were actually a walk-through.” Not quite: the then first-round opponent Belgium once only prevailed in the last singles match with David Goffin, who had not previously played 3-2.

But the criticism is correct: top ten stars have often only played the Davis Cup in the world group if they were either seriously interested in winning the title or wanted to save the nation from relegation.

Now – for the time being in calendar week 47 and thus after the ATP World Tour Final in London – a final tournament with 18 nations will be held. At a given location, topping and only two sets of winnings. The traditional home right only exists in the qualification in February (twelve finalists will be determined in twelve games). Then there are last year’s four semi-finalists and two wildcard countries.

The bad date should be postponed, if possible to September. If you believe FC Barcelona star Gerard Pique in a recent interview with “Le Figaro”, the investor is still trying to find a solution for 2019 even in cooperation with ATP: “A reform has certainly not harmed the whole thing,” concludes Thiem.

Also the ATP will help their ATP Team World Cup, which was once held in Düsseldorf, from 2020 with a proper cash injection as well as a new date in Australia directly before the Australian Open to new life. “I think he’s really good. Everyone who earns points plays there anyway. I’m sure it’s really fun when we play there.”

The intensive criticism, also from many ex-world class players or even from his coach Günter Bresnik, who had declared the Davis Cup “dead”, Thiem doesn’t want to agree at all. “Pique and Kosmos (his investment company) are sure to create an unbelievable event. If we qualify there, it will certainly be a really cool thing, I am quite sure. That’s why I don’t see it as badly as many others.”

So there will be no more five-set matches in the Davis Cup and the four Grand Slam tournaments in Australia, France, Great Britain and the USA will remain the last events with “best of five” matches. Here, too, there had recently been discussions about the abolition of the three winning sets, mainly because of overlong five-set matches in Wimbledon (without tiebreak).

“That wouldn’t suit me,” says Thiem and adds, “I always like to compare it with football, because tennis and football are perhaps the two greatest world sports. In football, the National Champions Cup has also been changed to the Champions League, and many things have also been changed there. But basically, the game has always remained the same. That’s the way it should be in tennis. Grand slams should stay best of five.”