"Pathetic, shocking, embarrassing!" - Reilly Opelka complains about new ATP Cup
The American Reilly Opelka has made a statement during the Davis Cup in Madrid against the new ATP Cup
by Florian Goosmann
last edit: Nov 22, 2019, 04:51 pm
The opinions on the new Davis Cup are widely divergent - in most cases, however, the criticism outweighs: too many matches in too short a time, no Davis Cup atmosphere, hardly any spectators, so the main arguments against football star Gerard Piques umgekrempeltes team event.
On the other hand, the newly founded ATP Cup, which starts the new season on January 3, 2020, has been more positive so far. Over a period of ten days, 24 teams in Brisbane, Perth and Sydney will play the winner, with $ 15 million at stake. Also present are Alexander Zverev and Dominic Thiem .
Opelka does not find the ATP Cup fair
One, however, has now come forward with clear criticism: the American Reilly Opelka. "The ATP Cup is pathetic," scolded the 22-year-old in the framework in Madrid. "It's shocking on behalf of the ATP for them to pass that and allow that. It's pretty embarrassing, it's pretty bad for the sport," he said. Reason for Opelkas criticism: The ATP Cup promotes the imbalance on the tour. An example: He is the number 35 in the world - but should not play along, because he is only the third-highest-placed American in the ranking. And only the two top people would play. Currently, John Isner and Taylor Fritz are higher in the US than Opelka, who is officially there but could only be a spectator or a sparring partner.
Opelka sees the ATP Cup thus a competitive disadvantage in terms of the ATP World Ranking.
Basically, a player gets the points for his best 18 tournaments (though some are mandatory). That means: Even if he plays 25 events, he gets only 18 (but has the possibility to replace bad results). The ATP Cup, on the other hand, would be an additional event.
"It counts as an additional 19th tournament. So every player gets 18 tournaments on their ranking card. So you have to take your top 18 results, those go for your ranking. Those that play ATP Cup get a 19th. So it's unfair, there's not equal opportunity for everyone, "says Opelka. He also gave a concrete example. "For example, Moldova qualified. Moldova qualified. I mean, their No. 1 player is ranked pretty far behind me and their No. 2 player I don't think he's ranked. So that's going to make for, you know, an 0-0 match that's going to be 30 minutes maybe. That's not good for the sport either.
John Millman also knows about the ranking problem
Similar to Opelka, the Australian John Millman, who praised the concept of the ATP Cup, but also pointed to the disadvantage that players of the top nations, which are just not the best, no chance of additional points.
Whether the ATP will take the criticism to heart, is so far unclear. Time until the start of the new season, however, would still be.