The International Tennis Federation and the Kosmos Tennis
group that is behind the competition said four cities will host the group
stages beginning in 2022, with another venue — likely Abu Dhabi — hosting the
knockout rounds.
Madrid was the sole host of the competition over a seven-day
period in 2019. This year, Innsbruck in Austria and Turin in Italy were added
as hosts over an 11-day period. The event was not played in 2020 because of the
coronavirus pandemic.
Each city will host matches from one of the four-team
groups, with the top two teams advancing to the knockout stage. This year, the
group winners in the six groups, plus the top two second-place finishers,
advanced.
The changes are being made as organizers continue to address
the scheduling challenges that marred the first edition two years ago.
“We are constantly thinking of how to improve, adjust for
the future and looking to the edition of 2022,” Kosmos CEO Enric Rojas said.
“We are going to try again to do another adjustment, a bit of an evolution, for
having four different cities hosting the group stage, and then going to a
neutral city for playing the final part of the competition.
“We think that with that small adjustment and evolution we
are going to have even more fan engagement and more people in the arenas because
of having four cities with extra home interest,” he said. “It’s going to give
us, in our view, the final piece of becoming a real successful event and the
real World Cup of Tennis.”
Organizers fell short of confirming a deal with Abu Dhabi to
become the neutral host city next year.
ITF president David Haggerty said “we have a preferred city
that has a vision that we have, that we share together, for Davis Cup,
continuing to build on that competition.”
“That’s one of the main ingredients,” he said. “We’ll be
leaving behind a legacy in all four cities that have the group stage as well as
the preferred city that will have the Finals. There are many outstanding
reasons that we believe this preferred host is where we will go. In due course,
we’ll make an announcement.”
A bidding process will begin in January for all cities
interested in becoming hosts. The cities will have six weeks to present their
proposals, and a final decision is expected to be made by mid-March. There will
be backup host cities in case the home countries don’t qualify for the
tournament.
Some players and team captains had expressed concerns with
having to travel to Abu Dhabi late in the season.
“I have the feeling after speaking to many players and
captains and federations that the noise that we are hearing is because of Abu
Dhabi or because other things, that that noise will happen always irrespective
of whatever you do,” Rojas said.
Haggerty said he was happy with the feedback from players
for the new format this season.
“The players we have spoken to enjoyed the experience of the
new Finals and have said they look forward to future editions,” he said. “As
you have heard recent comments from Novak Djokovic, Rafa Nadal, Marin Cilic and
Daniil Medvedev have shown that our vision for the competition is shared by the
leading players.”
Haggerty said lessons from 2019 “have been addressed” and
the format for next year “will provide the flexibility of schedules that are
needed. It will reach more fans and secure the economic sustainability of the
competition.”
Organizers said Great Britain and Serbia have been awarded
the two wild-card spots for next year. -AP
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