The captain of the France team Sébastien Grosjean said on Wednesday that the organizers of the Davis Cup should agree to review the format of the competition and study ways to return to the original format of home and away matches.
“I think we have to sit around a table with the circuit authorities and integrate the players in relation to the programming, the calendar, to perhaps put this Davis Cup back in a” home and away “format and find the best formula so that it fits into the calendar, so that the best can be available and represent their country, ”said Grosjean on the eve of the start of the 2021 edition of the competition.
Prestige in question
He is not the only captain who wants this dialogue. His British counterpart Leon Smith has also let it be known that he does not like the way the competition is currently organized. “We’ve been talking about the future of Davis Cup for a long time. And I don’t think the current format is the best, he let go at a press conference. There has to be an open dialogue about what will happen next, to ensure that this remains one of the most important competitions on the calendar. “
Smith is worried about rumors being heard about the evolution of the format, and the fact that the people concerned in the first place, such as the captains of national selections, will not be consulted. “It would be good to be able to talk about it before any decisions are made,” added the Scotsman.
Late hours and atmosphere at half mast
Established in 1900, the Davis Cup was played in knockout matches spread out throughout the year in the home country of one of the two teams until 2019, when the ITF sold the organization to the Spanish company Kosmos. Faced with a loss of enthusiasm from the best players for the competition, Kosmos changed the format and brought together at the end of the season the best 18 nations over a week in a single place (Madrid in 2019). But obvious organizational problems plagued the first edition of the new Davis Cup format, with matches ending well beyond midnight and above all the loss of the magical atmosphere of the competition.
After the cancellation of the 2020 edition due to a pandemic, that of 2021 was scattered in three cities (Innsbruck, Turin and Madrid) for its group stage. But with Austria having been confined due to a resurgence of covid cases, the matches in Innsbruck (which involve France, Great Britain, the Czech Republic, Serbia, Germany and Austria) will take place in camera.