Hanlon Walsh ·
The 2024 Davis Cup, now firmly in the books, saw Italy emerge as a dominant repeat champion. World No. 1 Jannik Sinner and former Top 10 compatriot, Matteo Berrettini, scored every point for Italy with a combined 5-0 record across three rounds.
Along the way, the Italians edged Argentina 2-1 in the quarterfinals before sweeping Australia and Netherlands 2-0 apiece in the semifinals and finals, respectively. After claiming both the Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup titles, Italy’s recent rise to tennis dominance is a prominent storyline coming out of both team competitions as we head into the off-season.
Another storyline, which was a central topic of conversation throughout Davis Cup week, is assessing the role of doubles, and doubles specialists more specifically, in the hierarchy of Davis Cup roster and lineup selection.
U.S., Italian Squads Overlook Doubles Specialists with Mixed Outcomes
The conversation around doubles specialists came full circle in the quarterfinals when Team USA and Team Italy both made bold, last-minute doubles lineup switches. Both captains decided to sub in their top singles players to compete in the decisive doubles match over their established doubles teams.
Italy opted to play Sinner and Berrettini over Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori, a top 10 doubles pair who qualified for the ATP Finals and made back-to-back major finals at the Australian Open and Roland Garros earlier this year. Fortunately, Italian Captain Filippo Volandri’s decision paid off as Sinner and Berrettini defeated the Argentine doubles team of Maximo Gonzalez and Andres Molteni 7-5, 6-4 to seal Italy’s semi-final spot.
Team USA, on the other hand, came under fire when Captain Bob Bryan’s surprising doubles lineup selection didn’t go quite as planned when the Americans fell 2-1 to Australia in the decisive match. In an attempt to surprise the Aussies and bring more firepower to the doubles matchup, Bryan chose Tommy Paul and Ben Shelton for Team USA’s doubles lineup.
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Paul and Shelton were outplayed against a tough Aussie doubles team of Matt Ebden and Jordan Thompson, as the Americans fell 6-4, 6-4, in a straightforward contest. In many Davis Cup scenarios, choosing two top 20 singles players for your doubles team would be a smart decision. But not necessarily when you are going up against a highly accomplished doubles team and you overlook two former doubles world No. 1s andgrand slam doubles champions on your roster.
To Bryan’s credit, Paul is a very capable doubles player who won the bronze medal at the Paris Olympics this past summer with Taylor Fritz. Meanwhile, Shelton’s powerful lefty serve can be a force in any doubles matchup, especially on fast indoor courts. So, it wasn’t a decision that Bryan made completely out of left field, and had the Americans won, he likely would have been praised for the lineup switch.
Tapping Paul and Shelton for Team USA’s doubles lineup left Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram sitting on the bench, stirring up controversy among many tennis fans and media who questioned Bryan’s selection.
Doubles Deja Vu for Rajeev Ram & Team USA
The most ironic aspect of Team USA’s singles-first approach is that Bob Bryan himself was a veteran doubles specialist, one of the best ever to play the game, and a vocal advocate for promoting and growing doubles.
But even the best Captain’s intentions don’t always translate to the desired results. And to make matters more complicated, this wasn’t the first Davis Cup doubles controversy surrounding Team USA.
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Bryan’s Davis Cup Captain predecessor, Mardy Fish, made a similar controversial lineup decision in 2022 that ultimately led to his resignation. Fish deliberately excluded top doubles player Rajeev Ram by only opting to fill four of the five roster spots with three top singles players (Taylor Fritz, Tommy Paul, and Frances Tiafoe) and Jack Sock as the lone doubles specialist.
Fish selected Sock and Paul to play in a decisive doubles match against Italy, who lost in straight sets, leaving many (including Rajeev Ram himself on Twitter) questioning why Ram was left off the roster. After underperforming at Davis Cup with controversial lineup decisions that have now backfired twice in the last three years, how will Team USA approach doubles next year?
Wesley Koolhof’s Final Doubles Curtain Call
It wasn’t all doom and gloom for doubles specialists at Davis Cup, however. Wesley Koolhof was the shining doubles star of the week in his quest to lead the Dutch squad on a Cinderella-like run to the finals during his last pro career event. Koolhof only played in one match this week… but it was a memorable one indeed.
He and partner Botic Van de Zandschulp defeated the Spanish team of Carlos Alcaraz and Marcel Granollers 7-6, 7-6 to clinch the decisive quarterfinal victory for The Netherlands, meanwhile sending Rafael Nadal into retirement.
Koolhof, the unequivocal MVP of the doubles match, showed the value of having (and using) a top doubles specialist in a Davis Cup doubles lineup. He wowed the crowd during tense points with his strong doubles IQ, reliable returns, and unwavering aggression at the net.
Although the Netherlands came up short in the finals, Koolhof can rest easy knowing he won his last career doubles match against one of the game’s greats in Alcaraz and a top career doubles rival in Granollers.
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Where Does Davis Cup Doubles Go From Here?
In the new Davis Cup three-match format, doubles arguably plays a more heightened role than in the previous five-match format with fewer singles points for teams to rely on. The only downside of this, however, is that often doubles isn’t played when many contests are decided by 2-0 singles sweeps.
Some members of the tennis media, including Christopher Clarey, have proposed a format change to have the doubles match played first or second, ensuring it’s always a live contest (big fan of this idea).
Format changes aside, doubles and Davis Cup seem to be at a crossroads with varying opinions on the value of singles players vs. doubles specialists when crafting a winning doubles team.
Sometimes, as Italy proved, top singles players may be the right lineup answer when you have the best singles player in the world (Sinner) and a powerful server like Berrettini. But good singles players don’t always translate into effective doubles teams.
Tennis is a game of matchups. Though we don’t always know the various factors at play when choosing lineups, I hope that more captains will give doubles specialists the respect they deserve and strongly consider them as viable options when the match is on the line.