Former tennis pro Mardy Fish has been a frequent visitor to Hawaii over the past three years, whether playing in the Champions Cup on Maui and Hawaii Island or on a family vacation on Oahu during the holiday season.
He’ll be back again in March, this time on business as captain of the United States Davis Cup team.
The United States Tennis Association awarded host duties for a Davis Cup event to Hawaii for the first time since 1992 and Fish will lead the U.S. into a qualifying matchup against Uzbekistan on March 6 and 7 at Blaisdell Arena.
“We’re super excited. I know the players are just speaking with them,” Fish, who reached No. 7 in the world in 2011, said in a phone interview on Monday. “We love playing in Davis Cup in the first place, the premier competition for playing for your country and the most historic one. We’re all excited to get out there and bring it to the fans of Hawaii.”
The qualifier for the “World Cup of Tennis” will be the first Davis Cup event held on Oahu and is part of a multi-year sponsorship agreement with the Hawaii Tourism Authority in which any qualifying ties hosted by the U.S. between 2020 and ’22 would be held in Hawaii.
The Fed Cup, the women’s equivalent of the Davis Cup, visited the islands in 2016 when Venus Williams and Sloane Stephens led the U.S. past Poland in Kailua-Kona. A year later, the U.S. women defeated Germany in Lahaina.
The last Davis Cup tie in the state was held in February 1992 when a U.S. team headlined by John McEnroe, Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras defeated Argentina at Mauna Lani.
“We really wanted to do something in Honolulu, where the majority of the population is, so we’re able to bring it to Blaisdell, where we have a nice big venue and everybody can enjoy coming out and seeing it first-hand,” said Ron Romano, executive director of USTA Hawaii Pacific.
“We tried for many years and the stars have to line up right and lot of it has to do with partnerships and working closely with Hawaii Tourism Authority, working closely with the hotels.”
The best-of-five tie will open with two singles matches on March 6. The doubles match and reverse singles follow on March 7. The winner will advance to the Davis Cup Finals in Madrid, Spain, in November.
The International Tennis Federation introduced a new format for the Davis Cup last year, with 18 teams convening in Madrid for a week-long competition.
The U.S., with a roster featuring Taylor Fritz, Reilly Opelka, Sam Querrey, Frances Tiafoe and Jack Sock, went 1-1 in the Davis Cup Finals last year with a win over Italy and a loss to Canada. The U.S. lineup for the Hawaii visit has yet to be determined, and Fish said he’ll “make at least an educated guess after the Australian Open.”
“We had three youngsters (Fritz and Tiafoe were 21 and Opelka 22) on the team in November and they’re part of the present and future of our Davis Cup team and American tennis,” Fish said in addressing the pool of players available to him. “I’m assuming they’ll be a big part of Davis Cup for years to come and we’ve got some obviously really good players.
“John Isner has been in the top 20 for 10 years now, which is an amazing accomplishment, and we’ve got the best doubles player in the world in Jack Sock, who can also play singles. A couple of years ago he was as high as eighth in the world. So we’re going to bring some firepower.”
With Madrid now the hub for the Finals, the qualifier will be the lone opportunity for the team to play in front of a home crowd.
“Our singles players (Fritz and Opelka) actually had never played Davis Cup before they played in Madrid. … It’s nice now they get to feel the home-and-away aspect of Davis Cup,” said Fish, who played in 11 Davis Cup ties and was named the U.S. captain about a year ago, taking over for Jim Courier, who stepped down after the 2018 competition.
“You get that with these qualification ties and it is a very special and different format than they’ve got in Madrid.”
Tickets go on sale to the general public Friday and can be purchased at Ticketmaster.com. Two-day packages will range from $90 to $500. Single-day tickets will range from $55 to $260. More information is available at usta.com/daviscup.
