Competition for the Davis Cup: ATP presents its own team tournament

London (SID) From 2020, the reformed Davis Cup of the World Tennis Federation ITF will have top-class competition from another team event. On Thursday, the professional players' association presented its plans for the ATP Cup, which will take place six weeks after the premiere of the Davis Cup final in Australia and was announced as a "larger" new edition of the World Team Cup previously held in Düsseldorf. In three cities on the fifth continent, which are not yet known, 24 nations are playing for the title. In group games with four teams each and a subsequent final round, two singles and one doubles are played per match. The tournament, which takes place in Melbourne in the run-up to the Australian Open, lasts ten days and has prize money of $15 million. Players can also win up to 750 world ranking points. It was only in September that the world association ITF approved the reform of the Davis Cup. At the end of November 2019, a final tournament for 18 teams will be held in Madrid for the first time. However, the date has already provoked strong criticism, and not only Germany's top player Alexander Zverev has categorically ruled out taking part. Unlike the Davis Cup, the ATP Cup has the support of the players. "It's the best way to start the season," said world number one Novak Djokovic (Serbia). Zverev believes the tournament is “a good way to maintain team competition in tennis.” Roger Federer (Switzerland) and American number one John Isner also commented favorably on the new format. ATP President Chris Kermode said at the presentation on the sidelines of the ATP Finals in London: "We had the World Team Cup in Düsseldorf for 35 years. Now we are bringing it back, but much bigger, and the players are 100 percent behind it. " From 1978 to 2012, the ATP held a team competition at the Rochusclub in Düsseldorf in May before the French Open. The world association ITF and the investment group Kosmos, whose face is Spain's soccer star Gerard Pique, have long been looking for another date, but the ATP does not seem willing to free up space in its calendar. Federer, initiator of the Laver Cup in September, is also unlikely to be willing to give up the week in which the duel between Europe and the rest of the tennis world takes place. For Djokovic, only one team competition can survive so that two “average events” do not arise. Two tournaments within six weeks were "not good for the sport," he said on Wednesday in London after his victory over Zverev: "I think one event would be the ideal scenario." With his support for the ATP Cup, Djokovic made it clear on Thursday which competition has a future for him.

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Competition for the Davis Cup: ATP presents its own team tournament

From 2020, the reformed Davis Cup of the World Tennis Federation ITF will have top-class competition from another team event.

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