Time to put Davis Cup and BJK Cup to rest--United Cup is where it is at.

R

Robert F

Hall of Fame
Seems the United Cup has been a good way to start the tennis season. Good players, fun to see the mixed doubles, and not too demanding on the players but a good warm up for the Oz. Fun for fans and good for players.
Crowds seem decent.

Davis Cup and BJK Cup have become hard to follow, seem to appear on odd weeks in the year and locally get marginalized when only matches fill for the home country. I think we should learn from the United Cup.

I wonder if the Australian United Cup could be the final tournament for a United Cup series. Then have 3 buildup tournaments similar to the current United Cup before a slam. With RG and Wimby so close, you might have to massage it a little. Maybe even the 1st 2 rounds have 2 regional tournaments going on that feed to the following series.

So First Series would be two mixed teams tournaments on clay. Choosing big cities that don't have big events. The closer the event is to RG, then it needs to be in Europe. But if the first series was done at the beginning of the clay season you could have a United Cup Series 1 in Berlin and United Cup Series 1 in Buenos Aries. Top 4? Teams are winning points to quality for the final in Australia.

Series 2 would be on the grass either before or after Wimby. Again 2 parallel tournaments--one in England and maybe somewhere in the Viking Countries.

Series 3 before or after US Open--hit Chicago or LA and maybe somewhere in the Pacific.

Once all points are finalized it leads to the Final as we see today.
 
I'd almost argue was Hopman Cup backstabbed and robbed.
They should have just kept Hopman Cup but when they found the ATP Cup didn't have the joy of Hopman, they brought back that format and I'm glad they did.
 
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Everybody loved the Hopman Cup and it disappeared just like the Davis Cup, makes you wonder who is running the show?
 
The downfall of Hopman cup just didn't make sense. It was always a fan favorite.
Davis Cup over the years shot itself in the foot and then tried to change things too much.
 
ATP cup when it was men only along with the Davis cup was a bit much but since United cup is a mixed competition it serves as a nice complement instead.
But I have to say I miss the old davis cup ties with 5 setters, best of 5 matches, home and away format, some of my best tennis memories from the 80's and 90's was Davis cup when Sweden played.
 
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The revamped format this year, reducing ties to include 2 singles matches (instead of 4) alongside the mixed doubles, was definitely the right decision. Last year it felt too prolonged and drawn out. Essentially a Hopman Cup format but with more teams (18 instead of 8 as in the past), like we had this year) makes perfect sense. And this competition is far better and serves more of a purpose than the men's only ATP Cup IMO which was a complete waste of time (and part of a 'power struggle' between the ATP and ITF).

This year the competition was great and I enjoyed it a lot, regardless of the fact that I didn't want Germany to win as I dislike both Zverev and Kerber (Zverev to a much greater extent than Kerber though).

I also really miss the old, traditional Davis Cup format with home and away ties and best of 5 set rubbers. The home and away format was the best way to generate packed and enthusiastic crowds, and if often feels souless in a neutral venue when the home team isn't playing. And 5 set battles in the Davis Cup usually felt even more epic to me than 5 setters in the majors. Plus it further reduces surface variety as in the past we had big ties on clay and grass, plus fast indoor surfaces (I loved that polarisation and the ability to watch ties on both incredibly fast or incredibly slow surfaces as well as ones somewhere in the middle). But now it seems like the finals will always be held on indoor hard, which to me is just tedious.

Also while I very much enjoyed watching all-time greats such McEnroe and Becker really thriving in the competition, my enjoyment of the Davis Cup certainly wasn't heavily dependent on the big name stars showing up. What I enjoyed most of all, was seeing 'lesser' players coming to the fore and displaying heroics in it, whether it was Michael Westphal, Martin Jaite, Mark Koevermans, Marco Chiudinelli etc.
 
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Do a high % of tennis fans watch ATP and WTA tennis to be excited by this United Cup coed team format? I primarily follow ATP tennis and watch some women’s matches only at the Slams.

I liked the ATP Cup format better as the top men played each other before the AO - I was willing to stay up late on the West Coast to watch because there were multiple good mens matches back-to-back. With this coed format in the United Cup, I didn't feel tempted to stay up late to watch just one mens match in each tie.
 
I think the general ratings/fan interest favor ATP over WTA most of the time. But for some reason seems Mixed Doubles gets more interest than Men's or Women's doubles if the top talent in invovled. I think that is why United Cup has a best of both worlds effect. You get to see some good Men's matches and then the fun of mixed doubles.

I just felt ATP cup was more of the same and I rather watch the slam or a typical tournament.
 
Robert F said:
I just felt ATP cup was more of the same and I rather watch the slam or a typical tournament.
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The thing is before the AO, there are no big ATP tournaments and so you don't have a lot of matches between top players playing in the same tournament where you can assess their form against each other. This is unlike the leadup to the FO and USO where you can watch them at multiple Masters 1000 tournaments where the top guys all play. So, the ATP Cup was refreshing for me as there were several matches with top men playing against each other right before the AO. Even this United Cup is good from that standpoint compared to watching Brisbane, Adelaide etc.
 
Very true. I think Hopman cup used to get some big players, but if your country wasn't involved then you are right.
I'm for order-ideally I wished all the slams had a similar mini season before them. A few 250's and 500's with 2 masters and then a slam.
 
Robert F said:
Very true. I think Hopman cup used to get some big players, but if your country wasn't involved then you are right.
I'm for order-ideally I wished all the slams had a similar mini season before them. A few 250's and 500's with 2 masters and then a slam.
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I’m guessing they don’t have enough of a fanbase in Australia to do that. But if they could combine tournaments in the Middle East and Australia in addition to pushing back the AO till Feb, they could pull it off. Maybe a 250 and 500 in the Middle East plus a Masters 1000 in Australia before the Feb AO?
 
Robert F said:
Almost totally agree. Problem is Aus summer break ends by Feb, I think.
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Are you talking about the school break for summer? Do they need that to attract enough fans to Melbourne as the audience is mostly adults? The FO and USO are not held during the summer school break in those countries either.
 
Yeah, but I guess you are right.
Some US schools are still on break until labor day.
Nice to get the families and kids there.
 
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