As readers of my blog know, I am passionate about tennis. Uzbekistan is hosting Poland this weekend in the Davis Cup World Group Playoffs here in Tashkent. The matches are played in Humo Arena, home of the Humo Tashkent Hockey Team. The Uzbek Tennis Federation purchased a beautiful Rebound Ace hardcourt from a German supplier (approximately $200,000) and installed it in the arena. I had great seats thanks to friends yesterday (thanks Sasha and Igor!). Oliver and I watched the first two singles matches in the “tie” as it is called in the Davis Cup. A tie is a best of 5 matches, featuring four singles matches and one doubles match. All matches are best of three sets (this is a change from the previous five sets).
The big name in this event is the top Polish player Hubert Hurkacz, the world #8. Last week he lost in the Australian Open quarterfinals in five sets to world #3 Danil Medvedev. Hurkacz is the best Polish tennis player ever. He has won 2 Masters titles and 7 ATP tour titles and the 26-year-old is now ranked #8, his highest ever. Hurkacz is 6-5 and has a big serve (9 aces in two sets yesterday) and with his long arms, gets to a lot of balls. I thought his opponent, Sergey Fomin #403 ranked, put up a good fight and despite the 6-2, 6-1 scoreline, was an exciting match with many games having multiple deuces. He was clearly outclassed by Hurkacz, but I think he could have used a bit more of the slice to get his big opponent off-balance and moving.
In the second match, 20-year-old Maks Kasnikowski, the #277 ranked Polish player had an easy time 6-3, 6-1 over the Uzbek top player, Khumoyun Sultanov #330. The Uzbekistan team was disappointed in the result as they had a chance with the older Sultanov being closer in rank to the up-and-coming Kasnikowski. It really shows how much of an anomaly Hurkacz is on the Polish team with the second-strongest player, Kasnikowski, being ranked 269 places below him. We will be attending the doubles this afternoon.
I love the Davis Cup! The Davis Cup is the “premier international team event in men’s professional tennis”. My favorite aspect of the Davis Cup is that it brings professional tennis to places that normally do not host professional tennis tournaments. The International Tennis Federation (ITF) changed the format in 2019, in an attempt to make it more like a tennis World Cup. They formed a World Group of 18 national teams to play against each other in one venue in one week. Formerly it was a knock-out tournament throughout, with each “tie” being played in one of the team’s countries. Outside of the World Group of 18, the qualifying groups still play the old format. The new format has not been successful as the World Group Finals is barely covered in world media. I would prefer if they went back to the old format. I think the Summer Olympics has taken over as the “World Cup” and it should be left at that. There is no interest or space in the professional tennis schedule for a World Cup. I think it is good that professional tennis is at the Olympics and gets a broader audience and the Davis Cup will bring a team competition to lots of countries that would never be able to see live tennis. Other team competitions in men’s tennis tried to become the premier “World Cup” like the Laver Cup, but they are nice, but not it.
The competition is named after Dwight Davis (1879-1945) an American tennis player and government leader. He was the Secretary of War under Calvin Coolidge and Governor-General of the Philippines under Herbert Hoover. He was also a tennis “professional” before the ATP at the turn of the century. He won the “All-Comers” US Champions doubles three consecutive times from 1899-1901 and lost in the singles finals twice in 1898 and 1899.
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