Kosmos leaders to speak with Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic in Melbourne
The turmoil over the new Davis Cup structure has been one of the top stories in the world of tennis in 2018, with Kosmos organization leading the biggest changes in the history of the biggest tennis men's tennis competition that started way back in 1900. The $3 billion project will transform the regular four-week World Group into just two weeks event, with Davis Cup Qualifiers taking place between February 1-2 with 24 teams fighting for 12 spots that will join six nations who have already qualified for the finals at Caja Magica in Madrid in the penultimate week of November.
In addition, the best-of-five matches have been reduced to the best-of-three sets action in order to attract the best possible filed both in February and in November. With a huge amount of money on the table over the 25-year deal, the ITF and Kosmos will try to attract as many players from the top as possible, hoping for a positive financial arrangement for both Kosmos, ITF and national federations. Still, they are facing an ultimate obstacle in the fact that many leading players are against the radical changes, opting to skip the Davis Cup and wait for the ATP World Team Cup that will kick off in January 2020, offering huge prize money but also 750 points for the winners.
The entire French Davis Cup squad has been against the reforms, together with the Australian tennis federation and their players and Davis Cup captain Lleyton Hewitt. Kosmos and ITF will carry out with their plan at any cost but they will travel to Melbourne in order to try to speak with the players like Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic about their decision to skip Davis Cup Qualifying round and potential Davis Cup finals at the end of the season, just six weeks before the start of the first ATP World Team Cup. Davis Cup finals tournament director Albert Costa, Kosmos chief executive Javier Alonso and Galo Blanco will be at the Australian Open to lead the discussions but they will not make any changes in their plans with or without the leading tennis stars, focusing on federations instead of players alone.
“It’s not about the players, it is about the nations,” Galo Blanco said. “It’s the only event where the federations can get help from the players. The players are playing all the year for themselves ... this is the only chance they have all the year to play for their nations and their federations. It’s not that we don’t care about the top players. Of course, we would like to have all of them here. We know how the tight the schedule is and we’re going to do anything possible to have them all here. I’m really positive about having most of them with us.”
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2rRSxrc
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