Take Me Out to the Davis Cup? U.S. to Play Britain in Baseball Park Through the years, Davis Cup matches have been played in Spanish bullrings and an airplane hangar at the Vienna airport. American Davis Cup venues have looked conservative by comparison, but that will change next year when the United States team plays host to Britain at Petco Park, the baseball stadium that is usually home to the San Diego Padres. The first-round encounter will be played from Jan. 31 to Feb. 2, which also happens to be the end of Super Bowl week. But the Americans and their captain, Jim Courier, have done their best to generate novelty. Not only have they chosen to play in a baseball stadium, but they have chosen to play on clay, a surface that was Kryptonite to previous generations of American stars but has gradually become a safer haven. The last time the United States hosted a series on clay was in 1992, when the Americans beat Sweden, 4-1, in Minneapolis in the semifinals. "A home tie on clay feels weird, and it sounds weird," said Jeff Ryan, the senior director for team events at the United States Tennis Association and the man who has long identified and booked venues for the Davis Cup. But I guess I'm also in a weird way happy we've finally reached this point because I know Patrick McEnroe and the guys in player development are working on it quite a bit to get our younger players to be more comfortable on clay, and our older guys are becoming more comfortable on it. The Americans beat Roger Federer, Stan Wawrinka and the Swiss in the first round of the Davis Cup on indoor clay in 2012, then beat the French on outdoor clay. But the American men remain in a historically deep slump, struggling to be a factor at the top of the game. For the first time in the history of rankings, no American man was in the top 10 at the end of 2012. This year it will happen again, with John Isner ranked 14th this week and Sam Querrey, the next highest American, ranked No. But Isner has been ranked as high as ninth and Querrey as high as 17th, and the American Davis Cup team also has perhaps the greatest doubles team in history in Bob and Mike Bryan, who won 11 titles this year, including three Grand Slam titles. They were, however, 0-2 in the Davis Cup, losing to both Brazil at home and to Serbia at home. "I was the only person who could defeat them in 2013," Courier, said, joking. They pretty much won everything else, but if I was on the sidelines apparently I was the crucial fifth man on the court that caused the defeat coming their way. Courier said the decision to play outdoors on clay was a team one and was also because, given previous results, it was the British team's weakest surface. Andy Murray, the reigning Wimbledon champion, missed the end of this season after back surgery, but he is expected to return to the tour in 2014 and has said that, if healthy, he will play the first round of the Davis Cup. Murray has had great success on clay, reaching the semifinals of the Masters 1000 events in Monte Carlo and Rome, and of the French Open in 2011. But he has yet to win a major title on the surface and is more consistently dangerous on hardcourts and grass. Britain's next best singles players - James Ward and Daniel Evans - have had more success on faster surfaces. "You have to look at all the factors; you can't just look at Andy Murray," Courier said. You have to assume that if you play him on a bed of nails, he's going to be a tough out. Courier presumably will stick with such baseball terminology in Petco Park. The United States Davis Cup team is undefeated in six previous series in the San Diego area, but has played its previous matches in more conventional settings like the San Diego Sports Arena or the La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club. Petco Park, opened in 2004 in downtown San Diego, has played host to a Rolling Stones concert, a soccer match involving Mexico's national team and a Rugby Sevens tournament. But this will be its first tennis event, and the Cup matches will be held in a stadium built in left field that will make use of some existing seats in the bleachers and additional seating in temporary grandstands to be built on the outfield grass. Ryan said the capacity would be about 8,000, with the potential for more seating if demand warrants. That might be a tough sell on Super Bowl Sunday. "We played last year at home against Brazil on Super Bowl week, and it was pretty tough to generate any noise," Courier said. I think it's unfortunate with the timing, but of course this is an international competition, and the Super Bowl is an American affair, as you know. We'll play them when the I.T.F. tells us we need to play. The Davis Cup began in 1900 with a match between the United States and Britain. But the two founding nations of what remains the game's top team event have not faced each other since 1999, when Courier won both his singles matches in five sets against Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski in Birmingham, England, to lead the United States to a 3-2 first-round victory. "That was sort of the capstone at the end of my career, one of my final big moments in the sport as a player," Courier said. The crowd was amazing; the matches were very dramatic. I certainly felt the tension as we went into extra innings there in the fifth set with Rusedski. Courier could not have imagined then that the next British-American matchup would take place where innings are the rule. DJOKOVIC AND NADAL WIN The defending champion Novak Djokovic defeated the six-time winner Roger Federer, 6-4, 6-7 (2), 6-2, at the ATP World Tour Finals in London, improving his chances of overtaking Rafael Nadal in the race for the year-end No. 1 spot. Playing his first round-robin match at the elite tournament this year, Djokovic extended his winning streak to 18 matches after capturing his sixth title of the season last week in Paris. Djokovic is trying to finish No. 1 for the third year in a row. Nadal, who eased past David Ferrer, 6-3, 6-2, needs only one more win in London to be guaranteed the top spot. DOPING BAN REDUCED Viktor Troicki's doping ban for skipping a blood test was reduced from 18 months to 12, though he still cannot play in next week's Davis Cup final for Serbia. The Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling "puts an end to my dreams of being a top player," Troicki, 27, said in a statement. Troicki's ranking peaked at No. 12 in June 2011. It fell from No. 53 to No. 77 since he was suspended in July.