How Barca star is taking a $3bn tennis gamble

GERARD PIQUE has seen off the world’s best strikers in his dazzling football career and won pretty much everything in the game worth winning.

But never before has he been faced by something like the challenge that confronts him this week — trying to make a success of the new Davis Cup format.

Great Britain, led by the rejuvenated Andy Murray, are among the 18 nations lining up at the Caja Magica in Madrid — something akin to enemy territory for a Catalan icon like Pique.

His Kosmos marketing company have given the 119- year- old competition a revamp and now we will see if he is going to make his vision work.

Pique (right) and his backers, including Barcelona’s Japanese sponsors Rakuten, have acquired the licence to update an event whose previous format — ties played over four separate weeks annually — had seen participation by the world’s top players start to ebb away.

The no- shows have l argely been stemmed by the new schedule, but there has been much else to sort out, such as the logistical task of accommodating 18 teams in one venue.

The international football break (he has now retired from the Spanish team) has come at an opportune time.

‘There were some surprises in terms of operations,’ said Pique on a visit to this year’s US Open. ‘ For example creating 18 dressing rooms for the teams. We are having 18 different spaces of 100 square metres, each of them so they can have their own privacy.

‘In terms of the event, we needed to convince different people who were maybe sceptical and were against the idea of changing the format. We’ve had to face it since the beginning. This is something I believe we did an amazing job at because we feel people in the game are now more convinced. The

Davis Cup has a big meaning in the world of sport and tennis. There were some people against it, but right now I feel that Davis Cup is going to be stronger than it has been in the last 10 years.’

The initial word from the British team, who flew out last Wednesday, is that the practice facilities — which have involved the erection of inflatable bubbles — changing rooms and general set-up are impressive.

The attendance by the world’s best players has improved. Most of those who are fit will be there, with Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic said to have received hefty fees in addition to the £14million prize pot to ensure their participation.

Roger Federer and Germany’s Alex Zverev are exceptions. The fact that they are both managed by Team8, who promote the approximate rival Laver Cup, is no coincidence.

But this venture remains a voyage into the unknown. For a start the weather is going to be cold, with the temperature unlikely to get higher than 11°C at this unsatisfactorily late date.

Ticket sales for many matches have been poor, although Spain’s matches have sold well. The next bestsupported team is likely to be GB, whose following is expected to be well over 1,000.

Their two group matches — they face Holland on Wednesday and Kazakhstan on Thursday in a bid to make Friday’s quarter-finals — will not have the acreage of empty seats which will be seen at some encounters around the three courts in use.

What is worrying many experts in the tennis promotion business, however, are the sums. They question how on earth the event will generate profits to satisfy the financial conditions of the deal with the International Tennis Federation, which has been promised $3billion (£2.3billion) over 25 years.

The organisers do not seem to have sold any blockbuster TV packages, with Eurosport snapping up the UK rights late in the day. Looking on anxiously will be Pique’s collaborator and recently re-elected ITF president Dave Haggerty, whose most forceful backers included Wimbledon and its outgoing chairman Philip Brook.

Neutral onlookers remain astonished that the game’s rulers have allowed a situation to develop whereby the very similar ATP Cup will take place six weeks later in Australia. It would be no surprise to see the two events forced into some kind of shotgun marriage in the future.

In pure tennis terms, however, the coming week looks promising, and it could surprise the sceptics.

With the matches decided over the best of three rubbers (playing best of three sets), GB have strong doubles options and, by virtue of current rankings, will field Dan Evans or Kyle Edmund as No 1 singles player. They are among the realistic contenders in an unpredictable week all round.