Delray Beach Bids On Davis Cup Quarters

Tennis Week 02/06/2006

An American march to the Davis Cup quarterfinals may put sand in the soles of top American players. The United States Davis Cup team could be headed back to the beach if it beats Romania in this weekend’s opening-round tie in LaJolla, California. Delray Beach has already reportedly submitted a bid to the USTA to host an American quarterfinal clash against either Chile or 2005 finalist the Slovak Republic April 7-9th.

Delray Beach City Manager David Harden has already bid on hosting rights for the quarterfinals, according to a published report in The Sun-Sentinel written by Harvey Fialkov.

The Delray Beach Tennis Center, which hosted the International Tennis Championships last week, would be the site of the tie. Delray Beach has been a popular place for Americans in April.

Last April, the U.S. Fed Cup team swept Belgium, 5-0, in the Fed Cup quarterfinals. A year earlier, the American Davis Cup team descended on Delray in another April quarterfinal where it conquered Sweden, 4-1 (Roddick Beats Bjorkman To Lead U.S. To Davis Cup Semifinals).

The fact that several leading American players including James Blake, Robby Ginepri, Taylor Dent and Vince Spadea either live or train in Florida and former Boca Raton resident Andy Roddick, who now lives in Austin, Texas, has trained extensively in the Sunshine State. Additionally, the quarterfinal begins just five days after the Nasdaq-100 Open in nearby Key Biscayne, Florida, concludes, which makes Delray a logistically logic site. Six-time Nasdaq-100 Open champion Andre Agassi, who has expressed interest in playing Davis Cup at some point this season, has played some of his best tennis in Florida where he once lived at the Bollettieri Academy.

With a solid tennis fan base in the state, Delray Beach has traditionally drawn solid crowds for Davis Cup. Two factors which could work against the city would be the USTA’s desire to spread the event around to other cities and U.S. Davis Cup captain Patrick McEnroe’s consideration of playing the quarterfinal on grass if Chile, whose best players are most comfortable on clay, is the opponent. Still, the fact that the tie comes so soon after successive Masters Series hard-court tournaments in Indian Wells and Key Biscayne, combined with the fact top American men have posted their best results on hard courts and that the city has successfully hosted the competition in the past, means Delray Beach should receive strong consideration.

“If they want to play on hard court instead of grass, we have a 50-50 chance,” Brahm Dubin, whose company manages the tennis center, told Fialkov.