Davis here, Davis Cup on the way
Posted Courtesy of The Post and Courier (http://www.charleston.net)
BY GENE SAPAKOFF
Of The Post and Courier Staff
There are so many positives about the Davis Cup semifinals coming to Daniel Island. Andy Roddick's blazing serve.
Head coach Patrick McEnroe's strategy and the Lowcountry's September humidity vs. an upstart team from Belarus.
Glory, tradition, perhaps an international tennis incident or two.
But the coolest thing about Charleston landing the Davis Cup matches is that we already have Davis. That is John Davis, a genuine Davis Cup Davis, the grandson of Davis Cup founder Dwight Davis. A semi-retired graphic designer and photographer, the native New Yorker has lived on the Charleston peninsula for the last 12 years.
John Davis' cup runneth over last month when the United Tennis Association officially selected Family Circle Magazine Stadium over bids from Houston and other cities to host the U.S.-Belarus Davis Cup semifinals Sept. 24-26.
"The Davis Cup has criteria that has to be met and I know Daniel Island meets and exceeds all those requirements," said Davis, 67. "I think this is a grand thing. It's really wonderful."
The U.S. team led by Roddick and the doubles tandem of brothers Bob and Mike Bryan are heavily favored vs. Belarus. But the presence of Davis is welcome by McEnroe and USTA officials, who know Davis Cup history is riddled with upsets and drama.
DWIGHT'S BIG LITTLE CUP
For example, the 1972 U.S.-Romania clash in Bucharest, which Davis attended. Americans Stan Smith, Tom Gorman and Erik Van Dillen avoided a manic and somewhat dangerous home-country advantage to edge a favored Romanian team led by top-ranked Ilie Nastase and intimidating Ion Tiriac.
"It was the most exciting and most emotionally charged tennis match I've ever seen," Davis said. "It went down in the annals of Davis Cup history and it was an extraordinary performance by both sides.
"The place was filled and all the Romanians were just screaming. It was a soccer-crowd mentality. Stan Smith, with that big, booming serve, had to wait 30 seconds for his second serve. There was too much noise."
Dwight Davis was a 21-year-old Harvard student in 1900 when his International Lawn Tennis Challenge Trophy idea came to fruition. It featured a modest cup made by Boston silversmiths Shreve, Crump and Low. That first U.S.-British Isles tug-of-war gradually grew into a competition involving 143 countries.
Dwight Davis later became secretary of war under Calvin Coolidge but died in 1945. The late Dwight Davis Jr. was John's father. Dwight Davis III, John's brother, died just six weeks ago. Dwight Davis IV, 37, lives in California.
Dwight Davis Jr. preferred baseball to tennis. He was a founding investor of the New York Mets and once introduced a 14-year-old John to Branch Rickey, the famed baseball club executive who introduced several innovations to the professional game and signed Jackie Robinson to play for the Brooklyn Dodgers.
"I was a catcher," Davis said, "and I'll never forget Mr. Rickey looking across a table at me and saying, 'My boy, your father tells me you have donned the tools of ignorance.'"
Davis, Harvard Class of '59, was a catcher and team captain for the Crimson. Divorced with one son, he went on to live, among other places, in Peru and Switzerland. Davis helps run the Charleston Concert Association and is chairman of From Darkness to Light, an organization dedicated to the prevention of child sexual abuse.
SENTIMENTAL FAVORITE
All along, Davis has been involved with tennis as "an above average" player and a far above average contributor. He has been an executive director at the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, R.I., for 28 years and remains active as a fundraiser.
Tickets for the U.S.-Belarus match are moving fast. USTA officials expect a sellout, or close, at the 10,000-seat Family Circle Magazine Stadium.
"This would have tickled my grandfather pink to have a country such as Belarus in the semifinals," Davis said. "He founded the Cup as a symbol of sportsmanship as well as international competition and friendship and all that good stuff. He would have been absolutely delighted to see a small, former Soviet satellite like Belarus be in the semis." Dwight Davis might even want Belarus to win, his grandson said.
"I can't say I can root against the United States," John Davis said, "but I'd love to see Belarus give it a good shot." U.S. romp or Belarus upset, having a Davis on hand for the Davis Cup a full 104 years after Dwight Davis' first tennis dream come true puts some extra spin on Charleston's Davis Cup serve.
Gene Sapakoff can be reached at gsapakoff@postandcourier.com, by phone at 937-5593 and by mail at 134 Columbus St., Charleston, S.C., 29403.
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