Monday, November 11, 2013

Sliding Into Home

Last week it got announced that the first round Davis Cup tie for the U.S. vs. Great Britain in 2014 will be held at Petco Park in San Diego, the home field of the San Diego Padres. I immediately got excited due to the fact that I have relatives I can mooch off of I I can find my way down there. I went from excited to intrigued when I read that they chose to put an outdoor clay court down for the round. My initial reaction was a bit hesitant but the more I got to thinking about it, it makes sense. Here's why I think it could work:

1. Level Playing Field: In 2013 the team chose fast indoor hard courts to try and take advantage of the big serving of Isner, Querrey, etc. Having seen the Boise round first hand, I can tell you that the strategy appeared to backfire. In suffering a defeat to Serbia, it was the U.S. who looked tentative and not hitting out while the Serbians took full advantage of the court pace (um Ilija Bozoljac playing completely out of his mind anyone?). Nobody on the U.S. or U.K. squads has an amazing record on clay. Y,es Andy Murray has some solid results but he lacks any kind of title on the surface. After him, none of their likely guys have great results. Isner and Querrey, while not naturals on the surface, do appear to have gotten a bit more comfortable in recent years. The Bryans have already demonstrated they are capable on clay. Bare minimum, the surface should possibly play more neutral for everyone. 

2. Training Chaos: Putting a clay court down immediately after the Aussie Open could deter Murray from even making the trip over. Yes, he has said that if he is healthy he is going to play. However, he won't be that far removed from back surgery and rehab if/when he plays in Australia. A quick change of surface could be something that he won't want to do when he could potentially risk his season if he aggravates something.

3. Better Crowd Engagement: The tie is over Super Bowl weekend next year. In 2013, their first round was the same weekend in Jacksonville against Brazil. I watched that round as a nervous wreck because at that point we knew that if they won they were Boise bound. The arena was absolutely empty. The match was still in the air on Sunday and there was just nobody there. Brazil hung in the match in large part due to their small but extremely vocal fan base. For the 2014 match, the plans call for a reduced seating size (8,000 instead of 10-15k seat arenas). This means fans should be in closer proximity to the match overall and it should be more likely to draw closer to a full house. Davis Cup is a competition unlike any other in tennis when it comes to fan involvement. The U.S. team needs to capitalize on this fact and engage the crowd more than they did this past year. A revised seating plan could help them do just that.

I am excited to hopefully get down to this round in person next year and see what happens. I think it could be a big boost if the U.S. can pull together as a squad and make a run to the Davis Cup final next year. The quest will start in the outfield clay (so weird to say!) at Petco Park.    

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