The boss of the ITF has slammed the door on a return to the Davis Cup classic home-and-away format, with David Haggerty and his fellow tennis suits seemingly confused about an alternative future for the competition.
The American made his call at this week’s Davis Cup Finals in Spain, being played in a knockout format. He dismissed a return to the past but also could not start defining the future.
The format of playing at home and playing away is not going to work, the players have already confirmed this to us in the past,” he told the BBC
“We will not have good competition if we return to the home and away format;
“Although it may not seem like it, sometimes the loudest voices are not always the majority.”
Haggerty spelled out a laundry list of excuses, starting with the fact that top players skip the Davis Cup – especially when the Finals stretch into December.
He also revealed that falling crowd sizes appear to be a growing problem, explaining that a recent Davis multi-nation preliminary round in Manchester was plagued by chronically poor attendance.
“Some of the teams in Manchester asked us if we could help them get people from the local university in to cheer.
“So we got in touch with them and did what we could to get the right atmosphere, which we were looking for.”
He made sure to accentuate the positive as he spun the current Davis iteration, saying that players are starting to warm to the round-robin version.
“I really believe that countries are slowly getting used to this new format, fans are also adapting to the new concept.”
