If you want to get a great sampling of Davis Cup stories from around the world, just go see Kamakshi and tell her I sent you.
I should probably give K-girl a hat-tip more often, because she does an amazing job filtering out significant—and sometimes merely intriguing, or delightful—stories from the avalanche of articles published daily.
Browsing through Court Coverage, I came across the story out of New Delhi, where the traditional “Indian strategy” (play on grass at home, no matter what) failed to pay off against a solid Swedish team. Mats Wilander makes some harsh comments suggesting that the Indians choice-of-ground amounted almost to gamesmanship.
This accusation is made periodically in Davis Cup, and it stems from seemingly subtle, psychological ploys—like making a visiting team use cold, bare locker rooms—or concrete accusations having to do with the playing surface (watering down a clay court to make it even slower than usual is one of the standards).
Fact: Wilander is a very decent, low-key guy. Unless you have better info than I’ve been able to gather, it would be hard to imagine that his complaint is without merit, and it certainly isn’t an expression of sour grapes. Heck, Sweden won the tie.
This kind of controversy breaks out periodically—it’s all part of the way Davis Cup squads try to exploit any advantage—especially when they’re both the underdog and host nation. Having choice of venue and surface offers a team plenty of ways to make life uncomfortable for the visiting side.
Of course, there are ITF standards when it comes to the site and surface, so it will be interesting to see if Wilander decides to file an official complaint.
In any event, any chicanery the Indians may have had in mind certainly backfired, as one of their own guys went down with a serious injury and another almost succumbed to heat exhaustion.
Welcome to Davis Cup, friends!