With 131 countries competing in the 2007 Davis Cup can they realistically get through all the matches in 2 weeks? Or would you recommend that there's a separate event for the World Group? It would be a shame for countries who don't have any ATP tour events to lose DC ties. They can make more money for an association in a weekend than they might get in their annual budget. Personally with tennis being such a money-oriented sport I think it's great that there is still a competition that people can choose to play for their teammates and country instead of cash and personal glory.

Andy Roddick was committed to Davis Cup even after he won the USO slam in 2003 so it has nothing to do with whether you're in contention for slams or not. Why did you leave Djokovic out of the equation? Is it because he ruins your pat, simple argument? Sometimes patriotism means more to some players than other players who are only in it for themselves. Federer only plays Davis Cup so that he can play in the Olympics. You have it all backwards. Players like Djokovic and Roddick are to be commended for their commitment to Davis Cup, and players like Federer and Nadal should be criticized for their selfish "me first" attitude. There is no "I" in team.

Good point - I remember being surprised that Roddick travelled to Slovakia to play a tie on indoor clay just after winning the USO in 2003. He was in a position of needing points to clinch the YE No 1 spot and could have been forgiven for saving his energy for that. Interesting that you say in the article Federer and Nadal agree with Murray - are you sure that's the right way around? Just to clarify Murray didn't say his knee was injured, he said the bipartite patella condition had been 'aggravated' by his intensive training during the off-season. That didn't stop him playing Doha or the Aus Open, it hasn't stopped him from training this week at Roehampton and won't stop him playing back to back tournaments starting with Marseilles next Monday. Maybe Great Britain can't complain about the decision but they certainly can complain about the 'excuse' he used and the manner of the announcement. He didn't even have the common courtesy to tell John Lloyd or the LTA himself - he was too busy playing footba

Thanks for your comments. Djokovic and Roddick are exceptions but that's the point. More and more players are choosing to focus on the tour and less on Davis Cup. I didn't realize until earlier today that Murray was playing Marseilles. That's a slap in the face for his team and they're none to happy about it. Yes, Deb, there will still be a hierarchy in Davis Cup so the different levels would need a different event. I agree that's it unfortunate that smaller countries will lose out on Davis Cup matches but Davis Cup is competing with other touraments. For my part, I think we should lose the team event in Dusseldorf and just have a team Davis Cup event. Does any of you have a better suggestion or another suggestion. I'd love to go back and forth about it.

Nice idea to have a DC week instead of Dusseldorf. I could be wrong but I don't think guys like Federer/Nadal/Murray ever play there so maybe that could be a tournament for Europe/Africa zone countries trying to get promotion into the World Group. The only other team event I can think of is Hopman cup - maybe that could be for Asia/Oceania group promotion. Just an 'off the top of my head' idea which I haven't thought through at all so it could well be totally impractical.

Hi Deb, That's a good suggestion. I have to say that I'm feeling the loss already. I'm already missing the atrocious home calls that happen when the David Cup tie is played in the home country of one of the teams. Someone left a message on tennsidiary.com suggesting that Davis Cup players get ATP points for playing Davis Cup. To make it fair for players who don't play Davis Cup, he suggests a series of 4 ATP round robin tournaments (so they can play at least two matches as Davis Cup players do) during Davis Cup. What do you think?

Hi Nina, I have to say my intial reaction is 'please not round robin again'!! But the idea of alternative ways to get points would get around one problem - maybe the format could be similar to Davis Cup. Obviously that's dependent then on a country having enough players. One question I have on this whole debate is whether we'd even be having it if Federer and Nadal played. Let's imagine it's 2010 Djokovic is No 1, Tsonga is No 2 and they both love Davis Cup and play every tie. Does that solve the problem? Just to clarify where I'm coming from on this question, I'm in Latvia and Gulbis is our hero partly for getting us to the Europe/Africa Group Tier 1 level. A lot of people here feel that the only problem is Federer and Nadal not wanting to play which isn't seen as sufficient reason to change a tournament that involves over 500 ATP professionals this weekend. I'm trying to remember whether there was this much debate when Connors didn't play or when Sampras was reluctant to commit himself to DC. Sorry, m

In case you, or anybody else, hasn't seen it and is interested. Article on the pros and cons of awarding points here, you need to scroll down to the bottom: http://www.tennisone.com/magazine/larson_news.php

After Andy Murray was humiliated in the press by the his own brother for chickening out of the tie in Argentina my guess is that Andy will plan on playing more Davis Cup this year, barring injury.

I did see Bob Larson's rather exhaustive, and excellent analysis of the problem with giving out ATP points for Davis Cup. Djokovic is playing now and he might continue to play Davis Cup as Andy Roddick does but there is a continuing trend here: when a player regularly starts winning slams, he stops playing Davis Cup. In Nadal's case, he has enough problems with injury as it is. For Federer, he's had an unusually long and injury free stay at number one because of his style of play but also because he doesn't play many tournaments. As the number of required tournaments increase - and they have increases in the last years - top players will skip Davis Cup because it's too much to ask them to do that and play to the end of 9 masters level tournaments, 4 slams, 5 optional tournaments and their home tournament in far flung parts of the world. I'm not all that familiar with Serbia's Davis Cup history but they haven't gone to many Davis Cup finals and remember that Djokovic ran out of gas last year at the end of

Nina, I don't think it is all about the money or ranking points. At least for Rafa, it is a swaitch from hard courts to best of 5 matches on clay in the middle of the hard court season. It is not good for any player, let alone Rafa with those knees. Besides, he knew his team woould win without him and they did : 5-0. So, I am very happy that Rafa did not play for Spain in this one. I have said this in many other forums, that the Davis cup should be a two -week event , maybe every 2 or four years. Like the soccer world cup. The qualifying matches can be done in the first two years and the finalists couls go to the Davis cup like the soccer teams do. It can be in a different country each year and it will be much more exciting. Roddick and Blake are doing a great job of attending every single Davis cup match but that doesn't mean the world No 1 and 2 should do the same. Roddick has not played as much as Rafa and doesn not have injuries like he has. The problem is with the scheduling of Davis cup and that h

You forgot to tell that Nadal played a major part in 2004 davis cup win for spain.It is not justified to tell Nadal who is nursing injuries at present to play davis cup.I think that certain concessions must be given for a member of a Davis cup winning team.