{"id":309439,"date":"2025-11-23T19:16:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-23T19:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/309439\/"},"modified":"2025-11-23T19:16:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-23T19:16:10","slug":"the-future-of-the-davis-cup-the-annual-world-cup-of-tennis-that-players-want-less-often","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/309439\/","title":{"rendered":"The future of the Davis Cup, the annual \u2018World Cup of tennis\u2019 that players want less often"},"content":{"rendered":"

After 32 jittery, vibrating points, Flavio Cobolli ripped open his shirt in front of more than 10,000 screaming fans in Bologna, Italy. With a 17-15 third-set tiebreak win over Belgium\u2019s Zizou Bergs, the Italian sent his country into its third consecutive Davis Cup<\/a> final, and the home crowd into raptures.<\/p>\n

Cobolli, the world No. 22, and Bergs, the world No. 43, were at the center of their sport\u2019s universe in that moment, at its men\u2019s equivalent of the soccer World Cup. A captivating match, full of drama to the last, suffused with national pride: everything international sports wants to be.<\/p>\n

In tennis, this happens less than players and fans would like. Ahead of this year\u2019s Davis Cup Finals, the top three men in the world made the same criticism in different ways. The format of the tournament, one of the oldest team competitions in sports, gets in the way of its own ambition \u2014 starting with its yearly presence on the tennis circuit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think playing every year is not as good as it might be if you\u2019re playing every two or three years,\u201d world No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz<\/a> said in a news conference at the ATP Tour Finals<\/a> in Turin. \u201cThe commitment of the players, it\u2019s going to be even more because it\u2019s unique, it\u2019s different. You\u2019re not able to play every year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alcaraz was selected for Spain, but had to withdraw with a hamstring injury from his ATP Tour Finals final defeat to Jannik Sinner<\/a>, the world No. 2. Sinner, who led Italy to victory in 2023 and 2024, declined to play this year to give himself a longer off-season. He and Alexander Zverev, the world No. 3, who is representing Germany, echoed Alcaraz\u2019s belief that scarcity would help the tournament, and then went further.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never played the real Davis Cup,\u201d Sinner said in a news conference, while Zverev described the current finals format, which brings eight teams to one venue, as an \u201cexhibition.\u201d Until 2019, one of the two finalists would host the other in home vs. away ties. Italy\u2019s tennis federation has capitalized on its ascendancy in the men\u2019s game by hosting the finals from 2025 to 2027, but the volcanic support for Cobolli was not baked into the format as it used to be.<\/p>\n

The \u201cWorld Cup of Tennis\u201d still produces moments befitting that status. But Alcaraz, Zverev and Sinner \u2014 and other top stars \u2014 believe that it is run too frequently to make those moments special enough, as happens at events held every four years, such as soccer\u2019s World Cups and the Olympic Games. And while Alcaraz\u2019s absence was unplanned, Zverev is the only top-10 player at this year\u2019s edition.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I could see potentially in the future is having Davis Cup throughout two years, so you can also set up the semifinals in the beginning of the year and the final at the end of the year somewhere,\u201d Sinner said.<\/p>\n

The man at the head of it is open to discussion.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want the Davis Cup to be the biggest team competition across our sport and potentially across sport in general,\u201d International Tennis Federation (ITF) chief executive Ross Hutchins said during a video interview this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want it to be one of the top priorities (for the players). So I am very open to listening to them. I\u2019m very keen to try to do what\u2019s necessary to make this a priority. If that means more adjustments, then I\u2019m the guy that\u2019s going to listen and be open to that conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Italy and Spain will fight for the trophy Sunday, with their two biggest stars absent.<\/p>\n

Seven years ago, the ITF \u2014 which will be known as World Tennis from January 2026 \u2014 thought it had secured the Davis Cup\u2019s future. It entered into a 25-year contract with Kosmos, a sports and media company run by former Barcelona and Spain defender Gerard Piqu\u00e9. Kosmos said it would invest $3 billion over that period, and the investment saw the inauguration of the week-long finals. After dead rubbers and 4 a.m. finishes bedeviled the 2019 and 2021 editions, which featured 18 teams, it was cut down to an eight-team event for 2022.<\/p>\n

By January 2023, the partnership with Kosmos was over. Piqu\u00e9 filed a lawsuit at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) for \u201cunjustified termination of the contract between both parties\u2026 and for damages to the company,\u201d but it was dismissed in March 2025. But as early as 2019, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and others had expressed misgivings over the format change, with Great Britain and Australia\u2019s tennis federations voting against it before it passed.<\/p>\n

The belief that scarcity would suit the competition goes back even further.<\/p>\n

Pete Sampras wrote in his 2008 autobiography, A Champion\u2019s Mind, that: \u201cThe comparison between Davis Cup, which struggles to get adequate exposure and public respect, and golf\u2019s hugely successful Ryder Cup is interesting: Ryder Cup is a one-week event played every two years. Davis Cup is an annual event, played in four rounds on a rolling basis in unpredictable places. I wish they would adopt a different Davis Cup model \u2014play it in one place, over a specific period (two weeks would be ideal), and see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

The turbulence of recent years has extended into other parts of the competition. The qualifying matches were also held in neutral venues between 2022 and 2024, which led to diluted crowds and extended travel for players mid-season, with the U.S. playing Germany in China last September.<\/p>\n

The ITF sees home-and-away qualifiers and fixed venues for the finals \u2014 which also permits more advance planning in terms of tickets and sponsorships \u2014 as a good balance. The new finals format has seen some high-quality matches and moments, with Rafael Nadal starring for Spain in 2019 and this week\u2019s ties between Spain and Czechia and Germany and Argentina producing thrillers. But Nadal\u2019s efforts in 2019, like Cobolli\u2019s this week, benefited from home advantage.<\/p>\n

Hutchins, 40, appointed as chief executive in August, said that there are \u201c850 players that are part of this competition, including the guys here (in Bologna), and they\u2019re like, \u2018We love it here.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

882 players from 158 nations have competed across the event this year, and Italy\u2019s growing tennis fever has brought a fine atmosphere all week long at the Finals. Germany\u2019s doubles pair, Kevin Krawietz and Tim P\u00fctz, described it as \u201cgreat\u201d, even as Zverev asked whether it was a \u201cbit sad\u201d that his win over Francisco Cer\u00fandolo and the doubles tie only had around 1,000 people in a 10,000-capacity arena.<\/p>\n

\u201cI value the players\u2019 opinion enormously,\u201d Hutchins said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s what I\u2019ve been doing for the last 11 years. And I\u2019m very close with a lot of those guys anyway. So I would never stop people from having an opinion. But we also want to understand the reasons why those people have those thoughts and the wider context.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hutchins retired as a player at 29 after being diagnosed with Hodgkin\u2019s lymphoma in 2012, and spent 11 years at the ATP Tour as chief player officer and latterly chief sporting officer. He understands \u201cthe player perspective better than anyone at the ITF,\u201d one tennis executive, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, said.<\/p>\n

He is at the center of that perspective at a time when the sport\u2019s schedule \u2014 and the Davis Cup\u2019s part in it \u2014 is under particular scrutiny. The extended ATP Masters 1000 and WTA 1000 tournaments have added days to players\u2019 calendars and proved unpopular with them and with fans, while the ATP and WTA point to prize-money increases and ticket sales as benefits.<\/p>\n

Similarly, the annual Davis Cup format provides smaller federations with much-needed revenues, while any biennial version of the Davis Cup would have to work around odd years to avoid the Olympic Games, whose tennis competition the ITF also runs. And while Alcaraz, Sinner and Zverev\u2019s view that \u201cthe real Davis Cup is the atmosphere,\u201d as the German said, is a prominent one, backed up by both the home-and-away ties and the biggest moments of drama involving countries who happen to be hosting the finals, the security of a rotating, fixed venue is a consideration for the ITF.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very keen to try and do what\u2019s necessary to make this a priority,\u201d Hutchins said. \u201cIf that means more adjustments, then I\u2019m the guy who\u2019s going to listen and be open to that conversation.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we\u2019re happy with the changes to home-and-away from September this year, we\u2019re very happy with Bologna this year \u2014 so far it\u2019s been electric \u2014 and with how things were in Malaga.\u201d Hutchins is open to more discussion, too, about the home and away element of the finals, which could change from 2028 onwards.<\/p>\n

\"Fans<\/p>\n

\n Participating nations like Austria have brought strong contingents to Bologna, Italy. (Tullia Puglia \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Everyone in tennis has an opinion on the Davis Cup. The place in the calendar for the finals is another point of discussion, with some feeling that the November slot, at the end of a long, hard season, does it no favors. One suggestion is for it to move to April, right after the Sunshine Double of the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, Calif. and the Miami Open, before the clay-court season has begun in earnest, but that would have the same interruptive quality as some of the qualifying events.<\/p>\n

Ending the WTA and ATP seasons in September and devoting October to team events before a proper off-season would appear to solve many issues, but at this point remains a pipe dream.<\/p>\n

The Billie Jean King Cup, the women\u2019s counterpart, this year moved from November to September with mixed results. Part of the challenge was the fact that it took place in China, at the same time as the annual Laver Cup was taking place in San Francisco. America\u2019s centrality to the tennis world meant that the California time zone was far more convenient to most than watching an event 15 hours ahead in Shenzhen.<\/p>\n

One of the captains in Shenzhen was Anne Keothavong, who has led the British Billie Jean King Cup team for almost a decade. A former world No. 48, she also competed in the competition as a player. Keothavong said in a phone interview this week that making the Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup non-annual would be \u201cin the interests of the competition and for the wider good of tennis. It would certainly make sense on the calendar in terms of availability of players.\u201d<\/p>\n

She is also an advocate for home-and-away ties and would like to see the Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup finals be a joint event. That was partially the case last year, but in typical tennis style, the Billie Jean King Cup finals were played in an adjacent, smaller venue to the Davis Cup. Its finals are scheduled to be in Shenzhen for the next two editions, but there is no clarity yet on the likelihood of a joint finals in 2028.<\/p>\n

With Italy once again going for glory, Sunday\u2019s finale will be full of the fervor and drama that makes the Davis Cup feel like the World Cup of tennis. But at the center of this reminder of the potency of international team competition in tennis, will be the question of whether or not less might prove to be more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After 32 jittery, vibrating points, Flavio Cobolli ripped open his shirt in front of more than 10,000 screaming…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":309440,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[690,99,1794,428],"class_list":["post-309439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-culture","tag-sports","tag-sports-business","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=309439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309439\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/309440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}