Davis Cup revamp agreed at AGM depite LTA’s opposition

INTERNATIONAL Tennis Federation president David Haggerty believes the new format of the Davis Cup will continue to grow the sport following a controversial revamp of the tournament.

Members voted in favour of the overhaul at the ITF’s AGM in Orlando, which will see 18 nations compete in a week-long, roundrobin tournament in November 2019, with either Madrid or Lille set to be named as hosts in the next two weeks. The new format will see 24 nations take part in a home-and-away qualifying round in February 2019, with the 12 winners joining the four semi-finalists from the previous year and two wildcard teams, which the ITF will pick prior to the qualifying draw.

Haggerty said: “It is a very historic day for the International Tennis Federation. It is very exciting news that our AGM has approved the Davis Cup reforms, benefiting the nations with funding to help them develop, grow and promote tennis around the world.

“It’s really about developing tennis for future generations.”

The changes to the 118-yearold competition were rubberstamped despite opposition on Wednesday from the Lawn Tennis Association, the governing body of British tennis.

In explaining its decision to vote against the changes, the LTA said: “Concerns remain that the proposed format and its impact on the tennis calendar, extending the season for players, risks player participation and therefore fan appeal.”

However, Haggerty believes the LTA can be convinced following further deliberations after the ITF surpassed the two-third majority needed for approval.

“It passed it with 71 per cent, which is strong indication of support from the nations.

“Even the nations that weren’t in favour, I spoke to many of them and they said are very supportive of the changes and tennis family moves forward together,” Haggerty said.

“I was on a call with their (LTA) board yesterday explaining details and I know they made their decision after that.

“I don’t know all the details of the decision, but I think from their statement it seemed to be quite balanced.

“They believe further consultation and conversation should take place and the good news is all that was going to happen anyway.

“So their concerns were always part of our plans but we needed the nations to ratify this and give us the authority to then have those conversations.”