Murray: Give new Davis Cup a chance
Britain’s greatest player, Andy Murray, hopes that people will get behind the new-look Davis Cup finals, which begin this afternoon with an opening ceremony at Madrid’s Caja Magica.
Murray said he respected Gerard Pique – the Barcelona footballer who is the face of the new event – for “trying to do something new and different… there’s some people that seem to be hoping it doesn’t go well, but I hope it’s a big success. Because, if it is, that’s fantastic for tennis”.
The organisers admitted a fortnight ago that ticket sales had been sluggish for certain sessions. For example, The Daily Telegraph understands that, by the end of last week, only around 90 seats had been sold for Serbia v Japan at 11am on Wednesday. Overall, 66 per cent of the available tickets are understood to remain available, although Spain’s own matches against Russia and Croatia have sold out the biggest of the three arenas, which seats more than 12,000 fans. More than 3,00 tickets have been sold for Britain’s two group ties – against Holland on Wednesday and Kazakhstan the following day. Murray, who is playing his first Davis Cup matches for three years, will be the No2 singles player because his comeback from major hip surgery in January has only lifted him to No125 in the world. Murray’s comment about “people hoping it doesn’t go well” might apply to certain executives at the ATP Tour, who are holding their own rival team competition – the ATP Cup – in January.