© IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd
Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Wimbledon 2018 Champion Novak Djokovic on Thursday said he supports the decision to revamp Davis tournament. Speaking to reporters in Toronto, after defeating Peter Polansky 6-4, 6-3 to reach the third round of the Rogers Cup, the Serbian tennis star said that the change in format will ease the schedule for players. I think that the format needs to be changed. And I’m all in favour of that,” the 31-year old was quoted as saying by news agency AFP.
“You play one year, and then the next year you don’t play. It’s just the scheduling of this kind of format so far has been pretty bad,” he further added.
The tournament currently is structured around 16-nation World Group, which is contested over four weekends during the year. The remaining countries are divided into three regional zones. The International Tennis Federations’s controversial decision to revamp Davis Cup and morph into a World Cup of Tennis final featuring 18 countries, has not sat down well with several former and current stars.As per the ITF, the revamp would increase the prize money in the tournament and will also rope in top players from around the world.
“It would also raise the hosting standards of the Davis Cup to a Grand Slam level,” ITF chief David Haggerty told AFP. “Madrid and Lille are “the two leading cities” to host the first edition of the revamped Davis Cup in November 2019,” he added.
The ITF needs to win approval for the revamp at the federation’s annual general meeting in Orlando, Florida, which is scheduled to take place in August.
