Monday, November 28, 2016

Campeones! Campeones! Olé! Olé! Olé! Argentina are your 2016 Davis Cup Champions


2016 is the season where the sporting curses have been buried on a global and local level. Chicago Cubs in the baseball, Cleveland Cavaliers in the basketball, Portugal beating Germany and France to win the Euro football champs. In local Australian sports, Cronulla never won a rugby league title and Footscray hadn't won since 1954.

Argentina continued the vein of breaking sporting curses. This was a wonderful achievement at their fifth attempt, best of all they won every tie away from home which magnifies the achievement Davis Cup is taken seriously in Argentina and until yesterday they were the best country never to win it.

No I in team, but there is in winners

Sure Juan Martin del Potro is going to get most of the credit but this was a team effort and huge kudos to Daniel Orsanic one for getting him back into the fold and two he was able to blend the group of players into a unit. Leonardo Mayer who won the final match in the semi finals against the Brits. Fede Delbonis who lifts for Davis Cup played brilliantly against Italy and then was playing lights out in the final rubber to bring the final home. This was definitely the triumph of the collective than the individuals.






The Failures

Argentina had a golden generation of players Nalbandian, Coria, Gaudio, Chela, Calleri, Cañas and Zabaleta but weren't able to win it. Yes, there was a lack of a reliable second singles player on faster surfaces back in those days which were much faster than today's equivalent. As much as this is a factor, the biggest issue was they couldn't function as a team, it takes a special kind of DC captain to keep these strong personalities focused into playing for each other. Unfortunately it wasn't able to happen for them, but these guys helped paved the way for this generation as Vilas had done for them.

There have been some great meltdowns in Argentine Davis Cup history. In 2002 when Gaudio was 5-2 40-15 up against Kafelnikov in Moscow and on the second match point that clown posing as an umpire Jorge Dias didn't overrule a corrupt linesman who had hooked Gaudio with the ball landing in. Yes, this was the time before Hawkeye, then Gaudio was mentally crushed going down 2-0 on Day 1 and couldn't be pulled back.

Malaga 2003 when Coria and Nalbandian were easily the two best players in Argentina but both didn't play due to injuries. Gaudio who was hideously out of form had his lowest moment when he lost 14 games in a row against Ferrero on Day 1. Zabaleta playing so well in first 2 sets cramped up due to the tension, then we have Calleri who made the world number 1 Ferrero look like a child. In the final match Gaudio crumbles and cops a lot of shit for his awful performances when he returns home. Argentine fans are magnificent at creating atmosphere and support, but they will give you plenty of crap and acerbic comments if a player doesn't perform.



Worst of all was the Mar del Plata final farce. Nalbandian who was the star of the team wanted the final to be played in Cordoba but El Presidente Morea and the AAT thought Mar del Plata was a better option even though it was a much smaller venue. That created tension that was always simmering which tends to be forgotten about when you are winning. They thought it was going to be the big coronation moment, they forgot to realise that preparation is important and didn't respect the opponent. What should have been their moment was taken away by Spain.

Davis Cup Is Unique, Keep It That Way

With all the previous failures it makes the first Davis Cup title all the more special. Argentina has a great tennis tradition, they understand the unique nature of Davis Cup unlike Ben Rothenberg and some others who foolishly believe that Davis Cup should be played at a neutral venue and best of 3 sets. What's the point of these ludicrous ideas? They will not improve thhttp://www.daviscup.com/en/news/245925.aspxe competition or the sport, which is what innovation and positive rule changes can do.

Davis Cup has its issues and it's mostly with scheduling this is something they can't or won't get it right. One suggestion maybe would drop the teams in World Group to 14, so the finalists can get a bye into the quarter finals. From there, only the semi finalists onwards would be guaranteed places in the World Group and the other places will be decided as they are now with 10 places instead of 8. It was through Davis Cup that I became a fan of tennis and wanted to explore it more. There is more than enough homogenisation especially within the surfaces and an increasing globalised world, there needs to be some points of difference. If the nations are prepared to cede home ties and the revenue that it raises so ITF can have Davis Cup ties at neutral venues. Then it's a case of turkeys voting for Christmas.




Playing home ties creates such a better atmosphere for the players. The final in Zagreb was brilliant and the players lifted for the occasion, look at the 4th match where del Potro rallied from 2 sets down to defeat Cilic to give Delbonis the chance to win it. The interviews from the players and captains talk about this Interviews There was a hot crowd and they played a match befitting the audience. This is not going to happen in Moose Jaw Saskatchewan, Foot Fault City or Tashkent Uzbekistan for match involving neutral countries.


On a positive note, this was a brilliant way to end the tennis season. It's party time in Buenos Aires as they welcome home the champions and they deserve a week of celebrations.