Delray Beach, Florida Is Preferred Venue For U.S. Davis Cup Tie Against Czechs, Says Bob Bryan

By Randy Walker

@TennisPublisher

South Florida, in particular Delray Beach, is the leading candidate to host the USA vs. Czech Republic Davis Cup matches, the week after the U.S. Open, U.S. Davis Cup Captain Bob Bryan said on Tennis Channel Sunday night.

“It is kind of in Delray’s court right now,” said Bryan in speaking on Tennis Channel’s “Second Serve” show on its sister “T2” network.

Bryan told Tennis Channel’s Tracy Austin when asked what the process is as far as site and surface selection goes that it starts with the conversation with the players.

“I talk to the guys and I say, ‘What surface? Where are you guys looking? You want to go indoors, outdoors? What do you feel comfortable with?’” Bryan said. “And consensus was to play it in South Florida. So we’re looking at a venue there.”

Bryan said that all the top American players have committed to the play the match against the nation now named “Czechia,” the first match on U.S. soil since a 2022 series against Colombia in 2022 in Reno, Nevada.

“We got commitments from all the guys, all the guns, (Taylor) Fritz, (Tommy) Paul, (Ben) Shelton, they all have confirmed that they want to play. Obviously there’s a lot of tennis and a lot of Slams and Masters Series to be played before then, so we’ll see how everyone does, but it’s nice to have a pick from the guns, too”

Fritz, ranked No. 4, Paul, ranked No. 11, and Shelton, ranked No. 12, all have connections to South and Central Florida. Fritz living in Miami, Paul living in Boca Raton and Shelton living in Gainesville and Orlando. Frances Tiafoe, the No. 4 ranking American at No. 17 in the ATP rankings, lives in Boynton Beach, Florida. Bryan himself also lives in the area in nearby Hallandale Beach, Florida.

The Delray Beach Tennis Center previously hosted a Davis Cup match in 2004 against Sweden that also featured Bob Bryan and his twin brother Mike Bryan, along with Andy Roddick and Mardy Fish. (You can read about this match, as well as the 2004 U.S. Davis Cup campaign in the ebook “U.S. Davis Cup Stories – Facing A Davis Cup Rookie Named Rafael Nadal In Sevilla” here https://a.co/d/3OH0QhQ  via Amazon.com. The facility is the annual home for the ATP Tour’s Delray Beach Open held in February, as you see here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UN1L-JdF63g&t=10s and here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6g_gppXSw8

“We had a good tie there in 2004,” said Bryan. “We played Sweden. It was a really great tie. During the Delray Beach tournament they have the tarps on the top (of the stadium) but for this one, with maybe five months to go, we might be able to sell it out.”

The United States advanced into the this round after a 4-0 win over Chinese Taipei in January, with Alex Michelsen and Marcos Giron leading the United States. Should the United States beat Czechia, it will advance into the final “knock-out” draw of eight teams in Bologna, Italy November 18-23. The confusing new format for Davis Cup, implemented by the International Tennis Federation starting in 2019, has seen interest in the 125-year traditional competition wane. When Bryan played Davis Cup with his brother Mike from 2003 to 2020, Davis Cup matches in the United States drew consistently more than 10,000 fans. He feels this match against Czechia could bring a renewed interest in the competition to the United States.

“And you can see that candle of Davis Cup flickering here in the States, so it’s nice to get it back on the radar and pump it up, give it a shot in the arm,” he said.