Over the weekend, the Spanish top Seed, Rafael Nadal, had urged ITF (International Tennis Federation) to merge the reformed Davis cup and the ATP cup in to a big event saying “My opinion is very clear. Two competitions, team competitions, in less than a month is not good for our sport.
Is good for some players, of course, because they are able to get the higher prizemoney. Spectators have been excited with Davis Cup. Now first competition, official competition, they are watching [next] again on the tour is another team competition.
I think we need to be together. We need to make something big, and one World Cup. ” In factuality, shortly after Nadal’s plea, WTA Chair and Chief Executive, Steve Simon was quoted saying talks were ongoing over an ATP cup on 2022, however, no solid decision had yet been made and the ITF would love to start off the season in Australia as usual.
Nonetheless, a recent overhaul of Davis cup following ITF’s $3 billion, 25-year-long partnership deal with the Spanish investment group, Kosmos, it became increasingly difficult to patch-up normal schedules in Australia, where a revamped Davis cup will follow a $22-million ATP cup to unfurl the year while the latter would have 24 teams and the 120-year-old Davis cup will host 18 teams.
Meanwhile, echoing Nadal’s view that there should be only one ‘world cup’ of tennis, ITF President David Haggerty said on Sunday (February 2nd), “We’ve said one event – one big event – should be great for tennis.
We have an ongoing dialogue because I think we need to really look at it…I think that he (Nadal) feels the same way. I think the players are saying that so there’s a lot of similar statements being made, so it’s now sitting down and trying to figure out how we can accomplish that. ”
