The organisers of the controversial new Davis Cup have outlined plans for an Australian Open charm offensive in Melbourne next month as they attempt to convince high-profile sceptics such as Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic to support the $3 billion project.
Debate continues to rage in tennis about the makeover of the 118-year competition, with the traditional home-and-away format abandoned for a week-long, 18-nation extravaganza in Madrid next November.
Not me: Roger Federer is one of several tennis personalities to criticise the new Davis Cup format. Credit:AP
Federer, 37, has said he would “highly doubt” he would play if Switzerland qualified for the finals while world No.1 Djokovic is prioritising the ATP’s $20m World Team Cup to be staged in Melbourne in January 2020.
The updated Davis Cup will be a major talking point at the first grand slam of the year, with Spanish investment group Kosmos sending a delegation to Melbourne Park to speak to players, team captains and federations.
Headed by Barcelona footballer Gerard Pique and backed investors including American billionaire Larry Ellison and Japanese rich lister Hiroshi Mikitani, Kosmos signed a 25-year partnership with the International Tennis Federation to steer what organisers have dubbed the World Cup of Tennis Finals.
The new event came to 2010 FIFA World Cup winner Pique “in a dream” – but the reaction to its transformation to reality hasn’t quite been one.
The 2002 French Open champion, Albert Costa, and fellow Spaniard Galo Blanco, a former top-50 ranked player, will lead discussions with players in Australia after being brought on board as competition director and chief competition officer respectively, while Kosmos chief executive Javier Alonso will also be in Melbourne for talks.
“We will talk to everybody,” Alonso told the Herald. “Of course we have to talk to the federations and the captains, but having Galo and Albert on board helps us talk to all the players.
“What has been done here together with the ITF and Kosmos is a change of format, listening to the criticism and comments of players for the last 15 years. Albert remembers his times when he was playing and winning the Davis Cup that they already were complaining to the ITF because of the format (and the impact on players’ schedules). It is a big change, yes, to a competition of 118 years that for the last 40 years more or less has been with the same format. But the players wanted to have a change.”
Aside from being contained to a week, ties at the finals are also set to feature only two singles matches and a doubles encounter, with matches reduced from best-of-five sets to best of three. It will also be best of three in qualifying in February, which will continue to be Australia are one of 24 nations vying for 12 places in Madrid alongside the six automatic starters – this year’s semi-finalists Croatia, France, the United States and Spain, and wildcards Great Britain and Argentina. Australia’s qualifier is against Bosnia and Herzegovina at Adelaide’s Memorial Drive on February 1 and 2.
While the changes have been hard to swallow for many, Kosmos have emphasised what it is adamant will be the wider benefits to the game, such as increased prize money for federations and players, and a commitment to fund grassroots tennis.
“We are a private company … our final objective is to make money,” Alonso said. “But what I can tell you with this in mind, we are sharing our profits with the ITF and the ITF [will share them] with the national federations.
The Kosmos team hopes to convince the game’s very best players of its merits in Melbourne but maintains the event doesn’t necessarily need all of them.
“It’s not about the players, it is about the nations,” Blanco said. “It’s the only event where the federations can get help from the players. The players are playing all the year for themselves … this is the only chance they have all the year to play for their nations and their federations.”
“It’s not that we don’t care about the top players. Of course we would like to have all of them here. We know how the tight the schedule is and we’re going to do anything possible to have them all here. I’m really positive about having most of them with us.”
The World Cup of Tennis finals
Six nations – Croatia, France, the United States, Spain, Great Britain and Argentina – have been granted automatic entry into the new-look Davis Cup finals in Madrid next November. They will be joined by another 12 teams to be determined by qualifying ties in February.
The 18 nations will be split into six groups of three and will play each other in a round-robin format, with each tie consisting of two singles matches and one doubles, all best of three sets.
The leading team from each group and the best placed two runners-up will progress to the quarter-finals. The competition will then be a knockout event.
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