‘I haven’t heard many players in favour of it’ – two-time Davis Cup Champion critical of revamp

Tomas Berdych has slammed the recent changes made to the Davis Cup, saying “it’s sad we all gave our time and opinions and they went with this.”

In 2018, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) penned a $3 billion (£2.25 billion) deal with Barcelona footballer Gerard Pique’s Kosmos Tennis group. The following year the deal saw revisions made to the format of the tournament largely dubbed as ‘the World Cup of tennis.’

The tournament is currently being held across three European cities, Madrid, Turin and Innsbruck. However, the tournament looks set to be moved to Abu Dhabi, although these plans have been met by a mixed response by both players and captains alike.

Berdych, a top ten player for eight consecutive years and a semi-finalist at all four Grand Slams, has added his voice to the criticism of the numerous revisions.

Speaking at the Royal Albert Hall’s Champions Tennis event last week, 2010 Wimbledon finalist Berdych told Sportsmail “I spent so much time with the ITF on this. They asked many questions, blah blah blah, and then they changed the format this way.

“I haven’t heard many players for it. It’s sad that we all gave our time and opinions to them and they went with this in the end.

“If the Davis Cup happened every two years, everyone would be crazy about it.

“The winners really would be like the World champions because it’s more unique. You can find the dates in the year for the final to be in September (as opposed to in December as it is currently) and then I think more players would sign up. Then it really would be very special,” Berdych claimed.

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