Monaco and Poland enter no man's Davis Cup land, against their will
The previous tennis season had witnessed some significant changes in the structure of the oldest and most important national competition in the world, with the Kosom group taking over the Davis Cup and announcing different system from 2019. The World Group with four weekends was taken away, replaced by Davis Cup Qualifiers and Davis Cup finals that targeted lighter schedule to lure the top-ranked players into their national jerseys once again. The ITF Annual General Meeting In Orlando last August confirmed the historic shifts but not all the countries were happy with the new system, starting with the second most successful team Australia.
The new structure hasn't affected only the top squads, that have lost a chance to play at home maybe for years, but also the lower-tier nations that have worked hard in Group 3 over the last couple of seasons. Unlike in the past, the new Davis Cup rankings is based on the results from the previous four years which caused big turmoils, sending many teams backed into the Group 3 despite the fact they earned the spot in Group 2 or even Group 1. For example, Poland defeated Slovenia, Zimbabwe and Romania last year to get promoted into Group 1 under the old system. Instead of that, they are pushed back to Group 3, preparing an appeal but fully aware they can't do much against the powerful organization.
Kenya and Namibia share the same destiny, together with Luxembourg, Montenegro, Bahamas, Vietnam and other countries with small tennis federations and abilities to stand for themselves against the government body. Monaco scored four Group 3 wins in 2018 but instead of a well-deserved promotion they will have to spend another year in Group 3, something they were not very happy about. Luxembourg toppled Georgia 5-0 in April to secure the Group 2 spot for another year but instead of that it is Georgia that stays that stay at that level while Luxembourg was degraded to Group 3.
"The ITF is very performant and productive as far as accumulating actions and decisions which is killing the Davis Cup, one of the most prestigious worldwide Tennis Competition with almost 120 years of History. Now, the new rules concerning the different group levels of the 2019 format are just sportingly unacceptable. It will be more and more difficult for players and sponsors to keep their motivation and for the fans their enthusiasm. The Monaco Tennis Federation stands fully by other federations facing the same issue: Luxembourg, Poland, Montenegro, Estonia, Namibia, Kenya, Honduras, Bahamas, Kuwait and Vietnam," said Monaco Tennis Federation president Elizabeth-Ann de Massy.
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2N4NYUa
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