The Davis Cup has come under fire in recent years, but seldom has it been attacked like it was by John Lloyd recently.
The British pundit did not hold back in his assessment of both it and its female alternative, the Billie Jean King Cup, claiming it has completely lost what made it so great to begin with.
And, in sharing his staunch opinion on the event, he also slammed the likes of Emma Raducanu and Jannik Sinner for their lack of commitment to the cause, pulling out when he felt their respective countries needed them most.
“That would never have happened,” Lloyd insisted, speaking about his playing days.
However, that just scratched the surface of his frustration.
John Lloyd proposes radical Davis Cup rule change
Speaking on the Mitch Michals podcast, the former British number one chatted about plenty of tennis’ top talking points across nearly 45 minutes of discussion.
And whilst he touched on Roger Federer’s induction into the Hall of Fame, as well as Carlos Alcaraz and Sinner’s dominance, it was the Davis Cup which brought about the most visceral and passionate reaction.
Lloyd claimed: “To be honest, my reaction was sadness, not because Italy won it, but because of where the Davis Cup has come now.
“This, to me, I have been saying for years and years, that the Davis Cup has become a bit of a joke.
“It’s managed to get away with it, because when it’s being played in a different country, whether it’s patriotic, you still get people coming to watch no matter what.
“But you cannot have a competition that is billed as the greatest team competition when you have one player in the top 10 playing.
The last 10 Davis Cup champions
“You cannot fool the public. You can in Italy because they want to see their own country and they are blessed with a lot of good players.
“But Musetti and Sinner did not play because of physical reasons. They basically said that they wanted a rest and they wanted to prepare for next year.
“That to me is beyond belief. That’s where the Davis Cup has come now. That never would have happened [in my era].”
He did not reserve complaints just for the men though, turning his attention to Raducanu’s withdrawal from the Billie Jean King Cup too: “It’s not just the men, it’s the women. Look what has happened in the Billie Jean King Cup, which has also become a farce in that way.
Will Jannik Sinner regret not playing at the Davis Cup after Italy’s win?
“Emma Raducanu of Great Britain had a chance for the first time to possibly win it. She pulls out of it and says she wants to spend more time with the new coach and get ready for the next season or ranking points.
“I am thinking, are you kidding me? When is it not a privilege to play for your country? Where has the game come to now, where players are saying it’s the end of the season?”
Emma Raducanu has explained her decision to snub the Billie Jean King Cup, but it was a decision that divided the nation.
Because of this, Lloyd proposed radical change: “What it shows is that the Davis Cup needs to change and needs to change radically.
“In my opinion, it should be every four years, but a best-case scenario should be every two years, so that you have a chance for these players to actually put it down on their top priority list and not just when it happens to be convenient in their schedule.
“There is something that has changed in the mentality of players now, and it’s a very sad thing for me to see that Davis Cup now is way down.”
He was not finished there though, and concluded by ensuring that both Raducanu and Sinner were aware of the gravity of their decisions: “I do fault them. I’m not sure whether it’s coming from agents, parents or just us as a sport, that have not got through to the players that representing your country should be the best honour there is in tennis, and it’s not.
“I do fault them for not playing because, for me, they have not got their priorities right. I understand there are all these other tournaments, but these players are in a position where they can demand things now as a unit.”
Why the Davis Cup should be every four years
As Lloyd insists, the Davis Cup needs to become less frequent.
After all, the current yearly format has, as he suggests, taken the sparkle away from the competition.
Players no longer feel obliged to compete for their country, as they know another opportunity will come the following year. If they’ve won it once, they have no real reason to want to win it again.
Do you think the Davis Cup needs to make a change?
However, were it moved to every two or even four years, the Davis Cup’s prestige would skyrocket massively.
Top players would clamour for their spots, and a trophy at the event would be arguably as prestigious as the Olympics.
There’s no way that Jannik Sinner would have withdrawn from the Davis Cup this year if he knew that his next opportunity to play in it would be in 2029.
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