Djokovic wants Davis Cup resolution
SHANGHAI — The day before beating Croatia’s Borna Coric 6-3, 6-4 in Sunday’s final of the Rolex Shanghai Masters, Novak Djokovic met with Barcelona soccer star Gerard Pique in a bid to find a resolution over the controversial new Davis Cup format.
Under a plan proposed by Pique’s Kosmos group and adopted by the International Tennis Federation, the competition will bring together 18 nations for a week at the end of the tennis season for a championship finale.
In November 2019 and 2020 that will be Madrid, but top stars including Djokovic and Roger Federer have suggested they will not take part because it is at the end of a long season.
Djokovic, a prominent member of the ATP Player Council, said last week he is committed to the rival ATP World Team Cup, set to take place weeks after the Davis Cup at the start of 2020.
On Saturday, moments before heading off to meet Pique, the 14-time Grand Slam champion reiterated that the two tournaments “cannot coexist on a high level, especially as they are so close to each other”.
“At least in my opinion, there is no room for two big events,” said Djokovic, after beating Germany’s Alexander Zverev in the semifinals.
“It might not happen for a year, two or three, but sooner or later it has to be only one.”
Pique is at the Shanghai Masters because there is an international break in the soccer season and he has retired from Spain duty.
Meanwhile, defending champion Federer crashed out in the semis after a stunning 6-4, 6-4 straight sets loss to Coric.
Coric, who is now ranked 19th, earned breaks in the opening games of both sets and held out all his services games to see off the Swiss master in 73 minutes on Saturday.
“I thought he was better, he had more chances than I had. I got off to a bad start in both sets,” Federer said of the 21-year-old Croatian.
The 37-year-old also emphasized that this is not his last time playing at the Shanghai Masters.
“I definitely plan to come back next year,” he added.
Coric will improve his ranking to a career-high No 15 this week.
“It will be really ungrateful that I say that I was waiting for a very long time,” Coric said. “And it happened much earlier than what I expected.”
Djokovoic powered past the fourth-seeded Zverev 6-2, 6-1.
The 31-year-old Serbian, who has not lost a match since Toronto in August, broke four times of six offerings.
“He is probably the best player in the world right now. I didn’t lose to anyone that bad,” said Zverev, who committed 24 unforced errors.
The triumph also helped Djokovoic leapfrog Federer to become world No 2.
“Obviously I work hard for it. And my ultimate goal is to get to No 1 by the end of the year. I’m in a good way,” the 14-time Grand Slam champion said after nailing down his fourth Shanghai Masters title.