David Haggerty, the President of the International Tennis Federation, has said that tennis authorities are committed to merging the Davis Cup and ATP Cup into a single men’s world team event and concrete plans could be in place by as early as June when speaking at the Australian Open in Melbourne, Haggerty said, “We are talking to the ATP, we’ve heard the players’ comments, we know that the ATP has as well.
It would make sense to have one event that could be the team event for the men. We’re having discussions and we’ll see what happens. The vision to me seems to be having one strong event and we’re very open to that conversation.
Our goal is over the next few months that we have some serious discussions and see if there’s some alignment. I’d say by Roland Garros, Wimbledon, yeah, that sort of timing. A lot will depend on what it would look like, but I think that if the parties are open to looking at various possibilities, anything is possible.
I’m an optimist by nature. We just have to have those conversations and how we work together. A lot of times, it’s not just about the money, it’s about the schedule for the players, it’s about having more of an off-season.
Tennis is committed to having these conversations and trying to come up with the best formula”. The revamped Davis Cup was held for the first time in November followed by the inaugural edition of the ATP Cup in Australia just a couple of months later.
Most players, including Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, who played both the competitions, said that the two competitions should be merged. Haggerty continued, “Cosmos are a part of that conversation and they’re very willing to have the conversation about one team event. Read More
