Davis Cup finals in five cities from 2022
The Davis Cup finals will expand to five host cities starting next year. This was announced by David Haggerty, President of the World Tennis Federation, ITF, and Enric Rojas, Managing Director of Kosmos Tennis, on Sunday in Madrid.
by SID / tennisnet
last edit: Dec 06, 2021, 10:08 am
The most important team competition in men's tennis, however, will be reduced from 18 to 16 teams for the final round at the end of the year.
Initially there should be four preliminary round groups in four different cities, after only a two-day break, the knockout round starts with the quarter-finals in a neutral location. The host of the group stage will be decided in mid-March after the qualifying round, and the host of the knockout round has not yet been determined.
Davis Cup in Abu Dhabi?
Recently there had been rumors that this should take place in Abu Dhabi until 2026. There is a "preferred option", Rojas said on Sunday, but "nothing has yet been signed or announced". A decision should be made in the coming weeks.
The first two final rounds of the reformed competition took place in Madrid, this year there were also preliminary rounds in Innsbruck and Turin. Football professional Gerard Pique from FC Barcelona acquired the rights to the Davis Cup, which has existed since 1900, with his investment company Kosmos for a period of 25 years for allegedly three billion dollars.
Instead of four rounds spread over the entire year with home and away games in the world group, there has since been a final tournament at the end of the year with a preliminary round and a knockout phase with two singles and one double over two sets of wins.
Lleyton Hewitt: "Ridiculous"
The new format had aroused a lot of criticism, Olympic champion Alexander Zverev, as a loud opponent, refrained from participating in both 2019 and this year. The Australian team captain and former world number one Lleyton Hewitt had already reacted to the rumors of a move to Abu Dhabi with great incomprehension.
"If you sell the soul of the Davis Cup to the Middle East for another five years, I think that's ridiculous and you really destroy the competition," said the two-time Grand Slam winner last week.
The draw for the qualifying matches (March 4th and 5th, 2022) also took place on Sunday: Germany has to travel to Brazil, Austria to South Korea.