For tennis players, the love and support of the audience while playing a match is crucial! Now, imagine a stadium where there is hardly a crowd to cheer on the players. Sadly, the latest match between Canada and Finland has shown a similar scenario, where a revamped Davis Cup format featuring neutral venues did not sit right with fans. The lackluster audience has left fans wondering about the impact of the decision to opt for the traditional home and away ties.

On September 12, Felix-Auger-Aliassime’s remarkable performance propelled Canada to qualify for the Davis Cup Finals Group Stage! By setting a score of 6-2, 6-3 against Otto Virtanen, the 24-year-old Canadian player established a lead of 2-0 against Finland in D Group following his dominant display of tennis during his 73-minute long match. Quite exciting, right? But wait! 

The absence of a stadium full of audience has set a tone of disappointment among fans. In a recent Reddit post, a video of a stadium showed how only a few rows of seats are filled with audience, mostly the front rows. Interestingly, the 2024 Davis Cup, in which 157 nations decided to enter, will have their matches across four cities from September 10–15. This includes Valencia, Zhuhai, Bologna, and Manchester. 

Very sparse crowd for Davis Cup: Canada vs Finland in Manchester today.
byu/MontyBreezey intennis

As a result, the organizers adopted a home-and-away format, probably leading to some fans missing out on the opportunity to see their nation compete in one of the largest annual tennis competitions. Now that there is a lack of audiences in Manchester, fans are raising their concern about this format of the Davis Cup.

Fans react with disappointment after the latest Davis Cup match in Manchester

“The home and away format is not going to work and the players told us that in the past,” said David Haggerty, the president of ITF last year. He further described how going back to that mode of conducting the matches will not result in “good competition”. However, the home-and-away rule that strictly dominated the sport until 2018 has come into action this year as well, first in February (during the qualifiers) and now in September as well. And it seems fans are not happy with this at all, as one fan stated, “The neutral venue thing was such a bad idea. Everyone saw it coming.”

One fan, who was ready to attend the US vs. Germany match in Zhuhai, China, expressed disappointment and wrote, “That is quite sad. I am going to watch US vs Germany on Saturday in Zhuhai, China. Can revert if crowds are that scarce too.” Although Haggerty pointed out, “Sometimes the loudest voices aren’t always the majority,” some players showed their support for the home and away basis of play openly. For example, Alex de Minaur, who made his debut for Australia in 2018 in Brisbane, admitted how he was “lucky enough,” to experience this format early on. He highlighted how it gives him “goosebumps” when he recalls the memories.

“I watch Davis Cup matches for the crowd volume, the drumming, the horns. This sucks”, wrote one fan. The event’s conversion to World Cup-style traditions has been receiving criticism for a long time now. Even last year in Manchester, during Switzerland’s tie against France, there was a very small crowd in the stadium. However, the very next day, a matchup between Britain and Australia had approximately 9,000 people in the stands.

Players like Stan Wawrinka strongly protested against it and said last year, “You have to try new things, that’s for sure, but it’s been quite a clear disaster.” Echoing a similar sentiment, one fan wrote, “They took away the magic of Davis Cup : (”. Moreover, Andy Murray who was present during the initial discussions of the format, revealed how “not one person on the council supported it.” However, unfortunately, nothing changed after that.

Pointing out the innate flaw in this, another fan wrote, “I mean really who is going to watch Davis cup Canada Finland in Manchester. I reckon everyone who even knew it was happening probably went to it. 100% turnout.” However, with or without the crowd, players are determined to show their unwavering commitment to the sport. And Felix-Auger-Aliassime, now holding an 8-3 record in the singles matches in the event, is now all set to meet Jack Draper in Canada’s final Group D match.

Hopefully, in the upcoming matches, we will not be able to see a similar trend!