A lot of controversy was attached in the lead-up to the launch of the new Davis Cup and by the looks of things one hasn’t heard the last of it. It looks like some of the top tennis players like Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic might be considering whether they want to participate in this new tournament.
Federer, Djokovic and even Alexander Zverev have now all said they might not take part in the Davis Cup next year. The Swiss maestro said on the sidelines of the Shanghai Masters where he’s playing that the format isn’t quite made for his style of play.
When asked whether he would feature in the Davis Cup in this new avatar, Federer said:
“No, I highly doubt [I’ll be there]. We’ll see what happens. I don’t think this was designed for me anyhow. This was designed for the future generation of players.”
This was after Djokovic had questioned the timing of the tournament, with the players having completed their tennis engagements and recuperating for the new season at that time. The first finale of the first Davis Cup season with this format will be played in November 22-28, 2019 week.
The other issue that Davis Cup could face is from the ATP World Team Cup, a tournament expected to be played in January 2020.
Djokovic threw his weight behind the World Team Cup, calling it an ATP event and hence making more sense to feature in it as opposed to this new, year-end Davis Cup.
The Serb said, “I just feel like the date of the Davis Cup is really bad, especially for the top players. Between the two, I will prioritize the World Team Cup because that’s a competition of ATP.”
“But also I think and I hope that there will be a larger discussion between the players to understand how we are going to approach these two competitions.”
Switzerland will be playing Russia in the Qualifiers that will be held in February 2019, with the winner joining 17 others in the finals that will be played as a year-end Davis Cup tournament. On the other hand, Serbia take on Uzbekistan.
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