Relaunch of World Team Cup slammed

French Open director Guy Forget on Tuesday slammed the ATP’s plans to restart the World Team Cup, saying it could hurt the fortunes of the historic Davis Cup.

The International Tennis Federation last month announced a plan to run the Davis Cup — traditionally played over four weekends spread across the season — over a single week in November, starting next year.

But the ATP is hoping to revive the World Team Cup, to be played for the first time in eight years in January 2020 — possibly only two months after the Davis Cup.

“We could end up with two strictly identical competitions a few weeks apart, which I think would be dangerous,” said Forget, a former world No 4.

“There is no place in the calendar to have two competitions of this kind. Whatever the format of the Davis Cup, I hope it will have the edge.”

The ITF is hoping the possible change to a one-week format improves the appeal of the Davis Cup, which has seen leading players, including Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, skip ties over scheduling concerns.

The ITF’s proposal will be put forward at a meeting in August in Florida.