Canada hosts Japan in the first round of the Davis Cup, beginning tomorrow at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre at UBC. When Â鶹´«Ă˝Ół»hosted in 2013, Canadian fans made it one of the best live spectator events of the year.
Tennis, Davis D’Arge of Vancouver’s wrote me to tell me, is “a unique sport full of quirky rules and strange customs.” Cheering is charged with etiquette, he said, and the Davis Cup “has its own set of unique traditions and is set up for drama.”
Take it from the expert — here’s what D’Arge has to say about attending a Davis Cup tie.
"Things are a little different at the Davis Cup, which sets it apart from your normal tennis tournament. The elegant language of tennis becomes slightly altered. “Game,” “set,” and “love” still figure, but the tournament round is called a “tie” and each match during the tie is a “rubber.” The first team to win three matches wins the tie. If a team has already won three by the final day on Sunday, the fourth and fifth matches are called “dead rubbers.” This stuff just writes itself.
"The home country selects the surface, ball and venue that plays to their team strengths (or the weaknesses of the opponent). Ironically, Canada has chosen a Japanese-made ball, Yonex Tour, because its speed benefits our big servers like Milos Raonic. During the semi-final in 2013, Serbia hosted Canada at Belgrade’s imposing Kombank Arena on a clay surface.
"At your typical tennis match, the crowd cheers when it is acceptable to do so, in between points or during changeovers. The roar dies down to silence with only occasional outbursts and murmurs of appreciation occurring during play. At Davis Cup you have a rowdy group of a few thousand partisan fans waving signs and flags, faces painted, making as much noise as possible (more cowbell!), cheering not only for the players but for their country.
"Cheering can become a little too exuberant during the match (the rubber) and take too long to die down, prompting a polite, “Quiet please,” from the chair umpire. If the hubbub continues, the official will issue a warning to the crowd, then award points, then games, and if the fans stay unruly, the umpire can force the offending side to default the rubber. According to official Davis Cup rules, opposing players can’t be “unreasonably” provoked or intimidated. There’s some wiggle room there. Players are prohibited from using obscene language or gestures, or abuse their racket or balls. As with cautions to unruly fans, the penalties escalate: warning, point, game, default, unless the infraction is particularly egregious.
"Like a Grand Slam, there are no tie-breaks in the final set during a match… so you can get very long matches lasting four to five hours. The second longest tennis match ever played was during a 2013 first-round Davis Cup tie between the Swiss and Czechs. It lasted more than seven hours.
"The best time to grab some refreshment is during ball changes or between matches. You won’t be allowed back to your seat during play."
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