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National Team Tennis Cups are so 2015

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    National Team Tennis Cups are so 2015

    World No. 38 pulls off a minor rankings shock in four sets, and it's one rubber apiece.

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      National Team Tennis Cups are so 2015

      Croatia took Saturday's doubles to go 2-1 up.

      Today, Del Potro fell two sets and something like 52 or 53 down in the third, before coming back to beat Cilic in five sets. So far Delbonis has taken the first set off Karlovic, 63, and it's 33 with no breaks yet in the second.

      We watched most of the Delpo match in a burger place/bar in which I was, by some distance, the most animated spectator (although a couple of the guys on the grill cheered when the match ended as well). It's fair to say Buenos Aires hasn't ground to a halt for this one the way it did when the football World Cup final was played in 2014.

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        National Team Tennis Cups are so 2015

        64!

        Argentina are one set away!

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          National Team Tennis Cups are so 2015

          2-0 and 52 up. Delbo is serving for the salad bowl...

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            National Team Tennis Cups are so 2015

            ¡ARGENTINA CAMPEÓN!

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              National Team Tennis Cups are so 2015

              According to Twitter, that's the first time a nation has been 2-1 down, and two sets down in the fourth rubber, and ended up winning the Davis Cup final.

              And the last rubber wasn't even close. Delbonis went through Karlovic like a knife through hot butter. I doubt he's ever played as well as that in his career before today.

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                National Team Tennis Cups are so 2015

                Delbonis played, and particular returned, astonishingly well.

                I hadn't clocked that Argentina were drawn away for all four rounds. That makes it a really impressive achievement. I guess it's been done before, but it can't have happened all that often.

                Marin Cilic will be pretty beaten up emotionally by his match against Delpo today. Two games away at 4-4 and 5-5 in the third set, to a key defeat ~two hours later. Ouch.

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                  National Team Tennis Cups are so 2015

                  I was thinking the same thing about the venues, so just checked, by going through the Wikipedia pages of every edition of the competition. Here is a complete potted history of every time the International Lawn Tennis Challenge/Davis Cup has been won without the eventual winners playing a single tie on home soil.

                  The early years of the competition were held as a straight challenge series between the USA and the British Isles. The first two were held in and won by the USA, before the 1903 edition was won by the Brits, who thus gained the right to host the next edition.

                  When more nations began to take part (starting with Belgium and France in 1904, when the tournament was played in the UK for the first time), a system was introduced whereby the tournament would be played, and the winners would win the right to challenge the holders for the trophy. As a result, to start with any time that a team who weren't the holders managed to lift the trophy, they by definition had played all their matches outside their own country. Australasia (Australia and New Zealand) did it in 1907 (when the entire competition consisted of a match between them and the USA, and the final against the British Isles, all held at the All England Club) and in 1914, when Great Britain played their first two ties at home before travelling to the USA to play Australia in the final prior to the Challenge round.

                  By 1920, Australia were the holders and the tournament was largely held in Europe, with only the Challenge round being held at the holders' choice of venue. The USA did it in 1920 (although they received a walkover against the Netherlands in the qualifying final, and the Challenge round against Australia was played in New Zealand even though the holders were competing as Australia and no longer Australasia by this point, so it was neutral rather than 'away').

                  Australia managed it in 1939, 1950, 1955, 1959, 1964, often taking part in the Americas Zone and seemingly not allowed to play ties at home (or more likely it just wasn't practical for players who were spending the bulk of the year outside Australia anyway).

                  The USA did it in 1972 (they played in Jamaica against 'Caribbean/West Indies' and in Mexico against Mexico in the Americas Zone's North & Central American section, in Chile in the Americas Inter-Zonal final, and then in Spain and Romania in the Inter-Zonal Zone). This one is perhaps notable as it was in 1972 that the Challenge round was abolished, and therefore it's the first Davis Cup in which the previous year's holders actually had to [strike]put some effort in[/strike] play in the the competition proper rather than just the final.

                  So that gives us the more sensible yardstick: how many times has a nation won the Davis Cup without playing a home tie since the abolition of the Challenge round, with (nearly) everyone playing home or away at all times? Answer: the USA did it in 1972, France did it in 2001 (a year after Spain had won without playing a single match away), and Argentina have just done it this year.

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                    National Team Tennis Cups are so 2015

                    I'm somewhat abashed at "tarnishing" this thread, but it seems the best place to report that the Spanish authorities have arrested three dozen people who they allege were engaged in a match-fixing ring targeting lower profile matches in Spain. Those arrested include six players ranked between 800 and 1,200 by the ATP.

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                      National Team Tennis Cups are so 2015

                      Kvitova stabbed in her playing hand in a home invasion robbery

                      “Today I was attacked in my apartment by an individual with a knife. In my attempt to defend myself, I was badly injured on my left hand. I am shaken, but fortunate to be alive. The injury is severe and I will need to see specialists, but if you know anything about me I am strong and I will fight this.”

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                        National Team Tennis Cups are so 2015

                        Evans wins first rubber for Britain against unknown Canadian, then Edmunds trips up against Popsisil. All the talk, really, this week is about top player absence from the Davis Cup - Djokovic, alone, among the world's top ten players, is in action (Murray and Raonic are both missing from this tie), and everyone seems to agree that "something" needs to be done about that.

                        Problem is, no-one can agree what. Everyone - especially the players - agrees that the atmosphere of the Davis Cup, the home and away element of it, is wonderful and unique and should be maintained (i.e. no play it as a set-piece event somewhere neutral). Everyone also agrees that it's bloody hard to fit into (particularly) the ATP singles schedule. Will the ATP give any ground on that? Will they fuck. In fact, the ATP are probably already pissed off that Davis Cup means four weeks they can't flog events to yet more cities. They probably detest the Olympics, too. Will the ITP give up having an annual Davis Cup? No, and why should they? It's easily a more loved and historical event than, say, the Madrid Open, FFS.

                        I think the players, collectively, need to sort this out. Turn round to the ATP and say collectively to make room in the schedule - and reward in the rankings - Davis Cup not weekly events. It's not like they don't make enough money the rest of the year. Janik, I think you're in the lead for OTF on sorting this out on our behalf. Get on it, man.

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                          National Team Tennis Cups are so 2015

                          There's a new thread, called Salad Bowl or something along those lines, Rogin.

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                            National Team Tennis Cups are so 2015

                            Moved to this year's thread

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