Federation Cup and Davis Cup "Break"
Nestled in between the end of the 2008 Australian Open and the beginning of the “winter season” are the first rounds of the 2008 Federation Cup (this past weekend) and Davis Cup (this coming weekend). The scheduling challenges and lack of top players at several ties highlights once again the importance, or lack thereof, that many players place on Federation and Davis Cup duty. Surprisingly, almost all of the top players are
representing their countries in Davis Cup for this round with the exception of Rafael Nadal. However, the Federation Cup first round ties were missing about half of the top 20 players, e.g. Justine Henin, Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Amelie Mauresmo, Tatiana Golovin, Daniela Hantuchova. However, several players were theoretical members of the Russian team, i.e. Kuznetsova, Petrova, Dementieva, which is overloaded with talented pros and was led by recent Australian Open champ, Maria Sharapova in its win over Israel. In order represent one’s country in the Olympic tennis competition in Beijing, players need to have represented their country in Federation or Davis Cup competition which explains why certain players are competing in Federation and Davis Cup. Nonetheless, one can see the national fervor and excitement that these international team competitions provide in matches such as Sharapova playing in Israel or Nicole Vaidisova’s valiant effort for the Czech Republic in winning all three points against Slovakia. There is definitely an important place for international team competitions in a sport as global as professional tennis. However, the top players won’t compete in these events on a consistent basis as they do in the Grand Slams unless the scheduling of these ties changes in the future.
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