Andy Murray, Rafael Nadal, and Roger Fedrer had some pretty harsh criticism for Davis Cup’s much maligned format, which often taxes top players’ schedules at inopportune moments by scheduling Davis Cup weekends immediately before or after big events.
SI’s Courtney Nguyen culled some great quotes from the boys during this week’s media roundtable sessions at Indian Wells. Each was happy to levy some disdain for what they feel is a very difficult format to build a successful tour schedule around.
Read Nguyen's Piece Here
According to Nguyen, here’s what Murray said:
"It's just interesting how little effort seems to be made to change the competition. Because clearly, if every player is saying 'I love playing Davis Cup,' but one every two years they decide not to play it would suggest it probably needs changing. Then you look at this week, Roger, Stan, Rafa, guys who didn't play come in with a huge advantage. It's such a quick turnaround. I would say it probably needs a look at if you want to get the best players playing every single year.”
Murray helped Great Britain defeat the U.S. last weekend, and is referring to the fact that other top players who skipped Davis Cup last weekend come into the Indian Wells-Miami double rested and prepped. It’s a big advantage, and it forces players to make tough decisions. Either choose Davis Cup and risk limping into one of the biggest sections of the tour schedule, or skip Davis Cup to save the body.
It’s a question that is constantly being asked on tour, as federations agents and players jockey for influence in increasingly demanding scenarios.
Here’s what Nadal said at Indian Wells, according to Nguyen:
"If everything is perfect, fine. But in the end, the ITF lies to the fans and to everybody. Last year was great because at the end of the year Roger Federer won, [Stan] Wawrinka won. But Novak Djokovic didn’t play, I didn’t play. Lot of important players didn’t compete. But sure the end the final is Switzerland against France, those are two important countries for our sport everything is fine and Roger wins and everything is a show, great. They are safe for two more years. But that is a lie to everybody. That is the same thing in 2011 when we won. But that doesn’t change the thing is not working well."
Even Federer, who won the Davis Cup for the first time last year and promptly decided to skip it in 2015, had some criticism:
"I think it's so obvious that there's things not working. It's obviously such a great competition. There are good and bad things that whatever you say is just debating but nothing ever gets done and nothing ever gets changed."