Davis Cup: Neale Fraser, John Fitzgerald, Lleyton Hewitt disappointed over changes
Former Davis Cup captains Neale Fraser, John Fitzgerald and Lleyton Hewitt have expressed their disappointment with the overhauled competition format.
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Three of Australia’s most decorated players have expressed their disappointment over changes to theDavis Cup format.
Featuring in a parade of the six captains to have led Australia from 1970 to 2020, Neale Fraser, John Fitzgerald and Lleyton Hewitt lamented the overhaul of the competition’s structure.
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Speaking to an audience containing International Tennis Federation president David Haggerty, one of the prime movers behind the abolition of traditional home and away ties, the Australian greats bemoaned the move to a condensed competition.
“It’s a shame what’s happened to Davis Cup,” Fraser, winner of eight Cup titles as player and captain said.
“It’s not the same.”
Fitzgerald, also a championship-winning player and captain, is devastated the Cup has been reduced from a four-tie series spread from February to November to a single-week event in Madrid.
“I’m disappointed. I spent 21 years of my life, dedicated to Davis Cup,” he said.
“It was a format that I thought should be our mission statement to take tennis to communities around the world.
“And I wrote a letter, along with all these other guys, suggesting we thought there would be a change. We hoped there wouldn’t be.
“In my letter, I said at the end of it, ‘Look, you can change the Davis Cup’s format, but if you take away the home and away part of that format, you might have a good event.
“You might have a poor event in future but you will not have the Davis Cup.
“That’s what I wrote, that’s what I believe in.
“I’m pretty shattered about it, actually, but life moves on.”
Fitzgerald believes the tennis landscape is now too cluttered with a revamped Davis Cup, the strength of the Laver Cup and the wildly successful new ATP Cup.
“What will be, will be,” he said.
“Before that (November’s Davis Cup,), we had a Laver Cup, we’ve now got an ATP Cup, which by the way I thought was it was incredibly successful.
“There was passion, there was emotion from the players, there was buy-in.
“It was real.
“So now we’ve got three cups. May the strongest survive.”
Hewitt said Australian players will always give their all, regardless of the competition, but the Davis Cup finals were lacklustre.
“For me and my boys, we were upset with the changes,” he said.
“ No secret to that but any time we get to wear the green and gold in any format, the guys are gonna got out there and absolutely lay it on the line.
“So we went to Madrid to give our best effort and we prepared as well as possible.
“But, just as Fitzy said, Davis Cup home and away ties are something special. It’s what every player dreams of.
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“Whether it was playing home in front of a packed house, 15,000 fans screaming for you, or my other finals I played in Nice (1999) and Barcelona (2000), where the atmosphere was incredible.
“When we went to Madrid, we were shoved onto showcourt 3. There was no crowd there watching apart form a handful of people.
“To me, that’s not the Davis Cup. It’s not what it’s about.
“It’s about having passion, having supporters there. I think we’ve lost that.
“It’s another event. It’s certainly not Davis Cup. It’s a real shame for me.”
Hewitt said the ATP Cup, run by the ATP with Tennis Australia, was a far superior event.
“I was a part of the ATP Cup in exactly the same role I was doing in the Davis Cup and the boys had the same passion about playing for Australia,” he said.
“The biggest thing was the crowds. For every match we played, it was nearly a sellout.
“It was an incredible atmosphere for the players.
“I think that’s the telling stat.”