The original project was ambitious: revitalize a tournament with more than 100 years of history to reach a young audience and increase viewing time on screens (once on TV, in recent years on cell phones and computers). For this, when the International Tennis Federation (ITF) approved the change, the Kosmos Group, led by the Catalan soccer player Gerard Piqué, invested US$3 billion in a 25-year contract. Half of that amount was allocated to a trust to guarantee collection.
The Davis Cup changed from its historic four-series format, with alternate venues and choice of surface, to a qualifying round and the year-end Finals, a concept appropriate to many sports. Tennis was looking for its own World Cupwith a single rotating venue, lasting one week and shorter and more attractive matches. Money rules, but it is not always the necessary solution.
Since that August 16, 2018, the Salad Bowl traveled a path of comings, goings, curves and brakes. None of what was proposed for months by the holding company based in Catalonia to convince the federations became a reality, beyond the economic perception and the new sports structure. The business does not work and the transformations do not stop.
Only in 2019 was it possible to compete with the original idea, albeit with a slight change. The classification –which Argentina did not play because it was invited to the Madrid Finals- was going to be played for three days, like the old format, but it was decided to match the series in two days.
The joint ambition of Kosmos and ITF was to rival the Making Cupthe tournament created by Roger Federer that pits the leading figures in Europe against those from the Rest of the World, in rotating venues each year. This “semi-official” event takes place after the US Open, a sensitive date for tennis players who are finishing a long tour of North America. Formerly, the Davis semifinals were played days after the Grand Slam, so many figures were compromised. The Laver has an economic and commercial incentive: appearing there means having another sporting status.
Therein lies the explanation of the two phases of the new Davis Cup, with post-Australia qualifications and the Finals at the close of the calendar. Again, this only happened in 2019, the first year of the promising scheme.
In 2020, tennis stopped its normal development due to the coronavirus pandemic. Covid-19. The March Qualifiers became access to the 2021 Finals. Last year the fight for the title had a new scenario, since Madrid was not the only venue: Innsbruck and Turin were added, although only for the group stage . This was the last edition whose decisive phase took place in a week.
For 2022 the Finals underwent another reform. In the first place, there would no longer be 18 teams distributed in six zones of three, but instead there would be 16, that is, four groups of four. And they weren’t going to be played in a single week either: these days the groups are played -hosted in Bologna, Hamburg, Glasgow and Valencia-, while the last days of November, with the Qatar World Cup underway, the quarterfinals, semis and the series for the title will take place, already in Malaga.
This year another change was also implemented, which was also supported by a geopolitical situation. As of 2021, the four classified for the semis would not go directly to the Finals, but only the finalists. Russia, the last champion, was suspended after its invasion of Ukraine, so it was replaced by Serbia, the best of the last four contenders.
In just four seasons – three effective, due to Covid-19- the Davis Cup returned to a scheme similar to the one that gave it so much mystique through the decades. Before there were four series, usually in February/March, July, September (post US Open) and November, with trips to various venues and the possibility of playing on very different surfaces. Today there are three instances, in the same weeks, with the exception of July. The only positive aspect for the players is that the floor chosen is very similar to that of Flushing Meadows, albeit indoors.
In this way, it took Grupo Kosmos very little time to reverse its innovations and recover certain nuances of the old competition. Despite everything, there are many figures who continue with their denial. For example, the German Alexander Zverev He warned at the time that he was only going to dispute the classification because it was the only thing similar to the Davis Cup. This year, Marin Cilic, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal They deserted at the last minute. Players of the caliber of Alcaraz or Jannik Sinner were absent on the first day of competition in these Finals due to their intense activity at the US Open.
Notwithstanding this detail, as found out Scope In the distant 2018, the intention of the entity located in Roehampton was to move the date of the decisive series at the request of the tennis players. The first option to consider was… September, after the tournament in New York.
After the first edition of the “Davis de Pique”, as it was called in the anonymous virtuality of social networks, the ATP gave the ITF and company another shake. In 2020, the ATP Cup, formerly called the Nations Cup. Although both coincide in the format of groups and direct eliminations, the already extinct tournament was a kind of friendly, without points, which was played in Düsseldorf, on clay and before Roland Garros; while the official contest is held in Australian cities and serves as a preview of the first Grand Slam, with the same surface.
But the ATP Cup itself is going to disappear, since both the men’s entity and the WTA confirmed the creation of the United Cup, a contest that will have mixed teams and considerable economic prizes. It will keep both the format and the current date.
Change so that nothing changes, says the postulate. The ITF spoke in 2018 of building the “best possible future” for the Davis Cup, but today, in light of so many movements, it seems difficult to analyze the future. Will Piqué and his crew still feel motivated to innovate such a legendary tournament?
