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‘Sad’ Federer hopes new Davis Cup lives up to promises
CINCINNATI, Aug 19, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – While unsure of the wisdom of this
week’s sweeping Davis Cup reform, Roger Federer has called on tennis
officials to make good on promises regarding the new-look competition.
“I feel sad about it, you know, not to have the Davis Cup as it used to
be. It will never be the same for the next generation,” the 20-time Grand
Slam winner said on Saturday at the ATP-WTA Cincinnati Masters.
“I just hope that every penny of that mass of money will be paid for the
next generation,” Federer said.
Kosmos, an investment group led by Barcelona football star Gerard Pique
with Japanese and Chinese support, will spend $3 billion over 25 years on the
new event, which will do away with four rounds at home and away venues around
the world throughout the year, culminating with the final between the last
two teams standing.
Instead there will be a one-week shoot-out among 18 nations, to be played
in November at rotating venues.
With nearly two decades in the game, the 37-year-old Federer has a long
memory back to another mega-deal gone wrong which could have seriously
damaged the ATP Tour.
“We’ve seen a similar situation way back when with the ATP Tour and it set
us back in a big way,” he said. “I don’t want that to happen again.”
That incident in 2000 stemmed from the bankruptcy of the Swiss ISL
promotion firm that had promised to pay the Tour $1.2 billion over a decade
for the rights to the elite Masters events.
ISL suddenly went bust and the deal never came to fruition, although the
ATP recovered nicely to its current dominating state in the men’s game.
Federer won the Davis Cup with Switzerland over France in 2014 and played
almost uninterruptedly from his 1999 debut until age 34 in 2015.
“Clearly the ITF has never historically involved the players,” he said of
the decision. “(The solution) is definitely flawed in some ways.
“I’m all for innovation, and got to give them a chance to some extent. It
will be interesting to see how it’s going to work.”
Fellow former number one Novak Djokovic, a member of the 2010 winning
Serbia side, shared many of the same Davis Cup sentiments with his Swiss
rival but said something had to be done.
“Change was inevitable for the format,” he said, adding that he has
supported a format change “15 years ago, 10 years ago, five years ago, and
today. So it hasn’t changed.
“I’m really glad that, people of ITF are understanding the urgency of
changing the format and the schedule. It was just not right, especially for
the top players. In the last 10 years you could see that.
“Very few top players have played consistently in the Davis Cup
competition, which was, till recently, the only team, official team
competition we have in our sport.”
BSS/AFP/BZC/1830HRS