Davis Cup: Abu Dhabi is out of the running
According to a report by France's L'Équipe, Abu Dhabi has withdrawn as a potential host of the 2022 Davis Cup quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals.
by tennisnet.com
last edit: Apr 09, 2022, 06:23 pm
These tears will probably dry up quickly for tennis fans: According to a report in the French sports newspaper L'Équipe, Abu Dhabi will not be the organizer of the absolutely final phase of the Davis Cup 2022. However: Officially, Abu Dhabi had not yet been nominated to host the quarter, semi and grand finals. So far only Hamburg, Bologna, Malaga and Glasgow have been confirmed as venues for the first final phase in September.
The seemingly chaotic conditions in the ITF and at Kosmos are also underpinned by the fact that the draw for the four final groups, originally scheduled for the end of March, has now been postponed to April 26th without further explanation. Germany will then be drawn from Pot 2, and could face either Croatia, France or the USA as their strongest opponents. Defending champions Russia have been banned from the current competition due to the war of aggression against Ukraine.
Davis Cup final so far no public success
The cancellation of Abu Dhabi will certainly affect the organizer Kosmos. Because he probably expected a massive financial profit there, which has not happened in the previous final tournaments. In 2019 in Madrid only the matches of the local Spaniards were really popular, in 2020 the final games could not be played at all due to the corona pandemic.
And last year everything was done in Innsbruck, for example. But spectators were not allowed at Novak Djokovic's rendezvous in the Tyrolean capital. At the same time, things looked a little better in Turin. The final in Madrid between Russia and Croatia was moderately attended at best after the Spaniards were eliminated early.