Tennis icon Vijay Amritraj spoke to reporters on the sidelines of the inauguration of the 41st National Convention of the Sports Journalists Federation of India and presentation of the SJFI’s inaugural Gold Medal to him for his overall contribution to tennis and promotion of the sport through the media.
This is what he said….:
Your views on the new Davis Cup format?
The best part of Davis Cup has always been home and away matches. We are taking that away at the moment in what we call the World Group. As far as we are concerned in India, it won’t affect us that much as we are still going to be playing home and away matches in Group 1. If we are fortunate enough to make the World Group then it will make a difference. The concept itself of playing all the events in one city is a precedent that I am not sure anybody would welcome. We completely understand the importance of having to regenerate interest in Davis Cup because by the time it finishes in December, they have to start in February and that is difficult for the teams in the World Group. Some changes were needed. My suggestion originally was to play World Group matches in the Davis Cup every two years so that the teams that have dramatically played towards the very end, after the Australian Open, don’t need to start again right away to defend it. That would probably have been the optimum because you still keep the home and away format in the World Group while Group I and 2 remain the same. For us, Davis Cup remains the be-all-and-end all of tennis along with the Grand Slams. We have to win four singles matches – all these are important to us. When we play Davis Cup at home and in all my years playing in India especially in Delhi, we always had the Prime Minister doing the draw. It’s was a special moment for us. It’s not as much as in the west as it is for us in our part of the world. It’s a big event in that particular city. I don’t think we should agree to take it away from us. Now it looks like a fait accompli, it’s done. Let’s see what happens in 2019.
What convinced the ITF Board to go for the changes in Davis Cup?
Several things. I have had conversations with a lot of them. I get their point of view that something needed to be done. ITF (International Tennis Federation) was, in fact, running short of funds; which was required to be done to inject money into the system. Point No. 2 is all the smaller countries – African, Asian, South American – were not getting really any funding from the ITF to develop their own talent. Here’s an opportunity to get some money infused into each one of these countries whatever be the amount, which was found missing to develop junior tennis. Those things make sense, but at what cost? Question is, could they have done that and still maintained this feasibility of sticking to the home and away format and playing them over four weeks. Now, all of a sudden you are playing it over two weeks. Is this going to guarantee all these guys – the top players – playing in it for sure? With all due respect, if Spain is playing France in a neutral country will it make that much of a difference in a three-set match? When Nadal, Federer, Djokovic, Murray, Del Potro – all these guys – play anywhere, there is going to be a good crowd. But what happens post their careers?
Do you expect Leander Paes to make a comeback in Davis Cup?
It makes absolutely zero difference. What are you contributing? You contribute nothing. Where are our four singles players? That’s really all we need. I don’t know why we keep having any conversation about doubles. It doesn’t exist. The tournament directors don’t want to have doubles. For years, they have been trying to get rid of it. It’s a great club sport and is a fun to watch. That’s where it ends. People don’t go to Wimbledon saying I am going to Court No 11 to watch doubles. Today, you look at the newspapers… they don’t even publish the results of those matches. We have to talk only about singles.