The new proposed Davis Cup format is so unpopular that even controversial U.S. President Donald Trump enjoys better popularity ratings in polls.
Two online Twitter polls place the popularity of the new proposed one-site, one-week Davis Cup format at a 22 and 34 percent approval rating. Christopher Clarey, the long-time and respected tennis writer for the New York Times, posted a poll on his Twitter feed asking his followers “Who approves of the ITF’s plan to change Davis Cup?” Only 34 percent of Clarey’s respondents said they approved of the new one-site, one-week Davis Cup format, with 66 percent disapproving. In another poll conducted by our @WorldTennisMag Twitter feed, only 22 percent said they approved of the new format, 78 percent disapproving.
By comparison, the popularity of Trump among Americans has ranged from a low of 34 percent to a high of 46 percent, per Gallup, in the 14 months he has been the President of the United States.
The new format, as outlined here https://www.daviscup.com/en/news/281841.aspx scraps the traditional “home and away” scenarios for the World Group and has the competition played over one week in one location, with round-robin matches featuring two best-of-three singles matches and one best-of-three doubles match. The World Group matches are now stretched over four weeks of the year and are a best-of-five-match series with best-of-five matches.
Marin Cilic of Croatia made an assumption of percentages of players who would approve of the new proposed format at 99.9 percent. However, Frenchmen Lucas Pouille and Nicolas Mahut of the 2017 winning French team are fervently against the changes. Mahut said “they just killed the Davis Cup” when he learned of the format while Pouille called it a “death sentence” for the competition.
Yannick Noah, one of the most iconic Davis Cup figures in the history of the competition, said on Twitter “The end of the Davis Cup. How sad. They sold the soul of a historical ordeal. Sorry, Mr. Davis.”
The French, who perhaps have embraced the competition like no other nation, built the current Roland Garros stadium, now the site of the French championships, specifically for Davis Cup in the 1920s. Arnaud Clement, another Davis Cup warrior for France, was also against the changes as seen here: http://www.tennisworldusa.org/tennis/news/Davis_Cup/52455/arnaud-clement-strongly-against-davis-cup-revamp/
Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic have said they see merits in the competition while Roger Federer he was “surprised” at the announcement but remained neutral as seen here: http://www.tennisworldusa.org/tennis/news/Roger_Federer/52401/roger-federer-about-new-davis-cup-i-am-surprising-this-is-happening-/
Peter Bodo of ESPN wrote a deep analysis of the format here: http://www.espn.com/tennis/story/_/id/22606083/tennis-proposed-davis-cup-reform-very-much-work-progress He wrote, “A close look at the alternative format makes many wonder if the cure isn’t worse than the disease.” Bodo quoted two-time U.S. Davis Cup winner Andre Agassi of the USA of the new format “I will have to see it to believe it,” and five-time Davis Cup winner Stan Smith saying, “It’s hard to see this going through.”
ITF President Dave Haggerty, who put forth the proposal, had an interesting question and answer session with Sports Illustrated’s Jon Wertheim making his case for the new format here: https://www.si.com/tennis/2018/03/08/david-haggerty-itf-president-davis-cup-changes-proposal
