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Going through the history of the Davis and BJK Cups over the last few years was an exercise in … remembering how last-minute and haphazard and disorganized a time it has been for these once-venerated institutions.
So we’ve chronicled some of this in this post – for diehards only, but still fascinating in a train wreck kind of way.
And with the news in the Times of London about even MORE possible momentous changes that might just kill the men’s event once and for all – and no word about where the BJK Cup goes after 2024 – stay tuned for more.
The short-lived Geneva Experiment
Remember that plan being floated around in the summer of 2017 about a “World Cup of Tennis” that would include the men and the women, and be held at the Palexpo in Geneva for a three-year period from 2017-2020?
We do, too.
It was a completely bonkers idea that needed ITF board approval later that summer. But at the annual meeting in … Vietnam, the International Tennis Federation forgot rule No. 1 of sports federations: be like the IOC, and don’t announce anything until you KNOW you’ve done what you needed to do, to obtain all the votes you need.
And so, the ITF said this: “The Board has listened carefully to feedback and has decided to defer bringing this motion to the ITF AGM for vote until 2018 to allow more time to reach alignment.”
In the meantime, the board decided introduce new rules for the Group I and II zonal events in 2018, with ties to beplayed as best-of-three sets over the course of two days.
Enter Kosmos
Remember that day in Feb. 2018 when the football star Gerard Piqué was announced as the frontman for a company, Kosmos, that was going to save, revamp and revolutionize the 118-year-old Davis Cup competition?
We do, too.
They weren’t even going to call it the “Davis Cup” any more; it would be rebranded the “World Cup of Tennis”. It was going to be played at a “world-class location”, which one British newspaper announced was likely to be … Singapore.
Suddenly, the women were excluded from this entire “World Cup of Tennis” notion, as Kosmos and the Spaniards (a country not particularly known for its support of women’s tennis) decided the men only were worth an investment of … $3 billion over 25 years.
But by April, the notion that the Finals would be held in Asia shifted to, “Well, maybe they can happen in Madrid, or Barcelona – or both. And maybe there don’t need to be 18 teams; eight will do.
The ATP Cup is announced
By Wimbledon, the ATP and Tennis Australia announced that a new event, the ATP Cup, was a go.
(Noteworthy that before Piqué and Kosmos got into bed with the ITF, they had reportedly been discussing just this very thing with the ATP).
Ducks in a row
By August, and the annual ITF meeting – this time held in Orlando, Fla. in president David Haggerty’s back yard – the requisite vote politicking had been done and the takeover approved.
The format for the first year in 2019 was to have 24 teams play qualifiers in February, with the 12 winners joining the four 2018 semifinalist teams – and two at-large wild cards – for an 18-nation event in November.
By the US Open, L’Équipe did some digging and revealed that the state of affairs was even more discombobulated than we’d thought.
Spanish company decides on … Spain as host
A few weeks later, it was announced (to no one’s surprise, given Kosmos was a Spanish company) that Madrid would host the first two editions. The Asian idea had been abandoned at least in part because of players’ objections to making that long trip at the end of the season.
(Note to self: fast forward six years to the current situation).
Remember the “Majesty Cup? We don’t, either.
Oh hey – hard courts in the Caja? Cool!
A few days later, it was announced that the clay courts of the Caja Magica would be (at significant cost, one would assume), transformed into hard courts.
Scenes from the final “Finals”
By November, when the final “regular” Davis Cup finals were held before some 23,000 – a day– in Lille, France, it was a scene.
Buying tickets for the first “World Cup of Tennis”. Ahhh … memories …
By the end of 2019, with little fanfare, Indian Wells owner Larry Ellison had bailed from the whole thing after it had been expected that Indian Wells would host the 2021 edition, after two years in Madrid.
Sponsors changed and disappeared with little notice. Even down to the tennis balls.
By 2020, “Fed Cup” rebranded as “BJK Cup”
While the pandemic was still raging, and the 2020 event – due to be held in Hungary – had already. been cancelled, the ITF decided it was a great time to announce that the “Fed Cup” was being rebranded.
Perhaps, in 2017, they had thought they were in like Flynn with that idea for a combined event in Geneva from 2018-2020. But of course, that didn’t happen.
(It was the men’s fault. As usual – and a cautionary tale of what happens when the women follow the men’s lead).
It would now be known as the “Billie Jean King Cup” – even though it wasn’t going to be held that year, or in Budapest (it was never held in Budapest).
And it was supposed to be in … April.
Splitting up the World Cup of Tennis
By 2021, after the inaugural 2019 edition in Madrid played to … modest crowds and then the pandemic cancellation in 2020, it was decided that the 2021 edition would change formats.
No longer a week, it was 11 days. And it was split into three different cities: Innsbruck, Turin and Madrid.
But not at the Caja Majica. Of course!
By 2022, it was complete chaos.
By the start of 2023, Kosmos was … out.
A few weeks later, the legal wrangling began.
And … here we are.
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