Major Davis Cup shake-up approved

ORLANDO: World tennis chiefs on Thursday approved a radical Davis Cup revamp that will overhaul the 118-yearold competition, condensing the annual worldwide showpiece into an 18-team, weeklong event.

The shake-up for the men’s team tournament received 71.43 per cent support from about 120 delegates at the International Tennis Federation annual meeting in Orlando, well ahead of the two-thirds majority needed for approval.

ITF president David Haggerty supported the revamp proposed by Kosmos, a group led by Barcelona football star Gerard Pique — who flew in from Spain for the vote — and backed by Japanese billionaire Hiroshi Mikitani, that has vowed $3 billion over 25 years to support the new event. Haggerty called the reform plan “key to ensuring that the ITF and its member nations will guarantee a bright future for the sport.” Also backing the reconstituted event is US billionaire Larry Ellison, who hopes his Indian Wells tennis facility would host the 2021 edition of the finals after the first two were played in Europe. The current Davis Cup format is a knockout event played February, July, September and November at home and away venues around the globe, bestof-five match ties following Grand Slam events until the final round.

Many top players have skipped it in recent years to ease their schedule load.

The reform plan will create a November finals with 18 teams: 12 winners from 24-team home and away qualifying in February, the prior year’s four semi-finalists and two wild-card nations.

Round-robin groups of three would send six group winners and two runners-up into knockout round playoffs.

The finals would feature two singles matches and one doubles match each day, all cut to best-of-three sets.