MALAGA – The World Tennis Championship’s “Final 8” is a relic of a multibillion-dollar deal gone wrong.
The revamped Davis Cup appeared to falter when the International Tennis Federation (ITF) was forced to regain control of its historic tournament in January when a massive deal with Gerard Pique-led investment firm Kosmos fell through.
It should probably have been clear that the 25-year contract and the promise of £2.4 billion investment in tennis’ most famous team competition were too good to be true. But the ITF broke the rules set by Pique and just five years later it all collapsed.
The ITF has terminated the contract and it is understood that litigation will continue with all parties bound by confidentiality agreements until an agreement is reached.
Within a year, they had reinvented the Davis Cup’s signature home-and-away format, with group stages at one location and then, two months later, a so-called “Final 8” that would last a week. Festival. The deal is completed, but the format remains, as do the divisions.
No one doubts that team tennis is an attractive product. To understand this, one need only look at the countless other efforts that make it work (Hopman Cup, United Cup, ATP Cup, International Team Tennis, World Team Tennis, etc.). The Davis Cup was supposed to be the Holy Grail, unhampered by the constant pursuit of higher earnings, but it later became a casualty.
Novak Djokovic, who was defeated in a thrilling semi-final on Saturday, is the latest in a long line of public criticism.
“I don’t think we all agree. We’ll probably disagree, but I think home and away is something that the Davis Cup has been very famous for in the past,” Djokovic said last week.
“And now I accept the nation.” [Final 8] At the moment, three or four years in a row, or rather five, Madrid, Malaga, in my opinion, is too much.
“He must travel. This is a competition that is held all over the world. I believe that the Davis Cup Final, at least if we stick to the Final 4 and Final 8, should be held every year. He should not remain in one place for more than a year.”
It’s a fair criticism, but tournament director and former player Feliciano Lopez was quick to throw cold water on him when he met reporters in Malaga on Sunday.
Speaking about the lack of offers from other countries, Lopez said: “I think it would be difficult to find another city in Europe that currently has everything that Malaga has to offer… the weather is attractive, the location is fantastic, the people from this region are very are hospitable to everyone who comes, so we came to the right place.
“But I think we can all agree that he won’t stay in Malaga forever. We understand that at some point the Final 8 will have to be held somewhere else.”
I suggests that the Serbian association had already been approached to organize one of the group stages next year before Djokovic’s further complaints that Serbia had not played at home for many years, but were not responded positively.
And on Saturday Lopez met with Djokovic – not his first meeting this year – to listen to his concerns in a “very productive” conversation.
“He expressed a lot of good ideas and concerns on behalf of himself and other players. And I think that’s the way it should be done,” Lopez said.
But these complaints can’t go further than the fact that the World Tennis Championships are getting underway.
The Martin Karpen Arena in Malaga seats just over 10,000 people and has been nearly sold out several times over the past week. Around 5,000 British fans packed the building to watch their team’s defeat to Serbia, with a smaller but equally vocal group cheering them on from the stands. 18 busloads of Finns came from Fuengirola, a city 20 miles south of Malaga with a large Finnish expat population, and their team unexpectedly secured a place in the semi-finals. The first final in Italy in 25 years saw a flurry of last-minute flights to the final – while even the Australians had a few drummers doing their best to fill the gaps around the world.
Even Djokovic’s angry exchanges with British fans, whom he had to tell to shut up and learn some respect, belied his own view: passionate and sometimes overzealous crowds are the hallmark of Davis Cup tennis.
Of course, the organizers were lucky to allow Jannik Sinner and Djokovic to play one of the matches of the year on Saturday afternoon. They were both present at the ATP Finals in Turin until late Sunday night but flew out there straight away to play for their country. If it had been a trip from Cancun to Seville, as the world’s best women do, to get from the Tour final to the team final, they might not have come.
This is not necessarily a coincidence. ITF president David Haggerty, who was widely criticized over the Cosmos debacle, says communication between the ITF and ATP is good – a rare example of joint effort in tennis’ heterogeneous organizational environment – although it is clear there is still a lot to be done in the WTA arena. do.
“We have a relationship with the ATP, so they help us get feedback from players, but we also do this: we meet with all the players and teams on both the men’s and women’s side,” Haggerty said.
“Having a stake in the ATP, they help us make some decisions. The calendar is also very important.
“We have spoken to the WTA, but I think we also need to improve the situation.”
And perhaps Djokovic should look over the fence in women’s football and realize that the grass is actually greener on this side. Most of the world’s best players did not cross the Atlantic for the World Tennis Championships because it was so close to the end of the year celebrations. Imagine FIFA starting the World Cup in Mexico the day after the Premier League season ends. This will never happen.
Djokovic is of course entitled to his opinion, and his approach is characterized by a desire to make things better. Thus he went from good to great and finally to the greatest. But this week’s data suggests there is something good here. The World Tennis Championships are starting.
Source: I News
I’m Dave Martin, and I’m an experienced journalist working in the news industry. As a part of my work, I write for 24 News Reporters, covering mostly sports-related topics. With more than 5 years of experience as a journalist, I have written numerous articles on various topics to provide accurate information to readers.