Italy confirmed their place in their third consecutive Davis Cup final by beating Belgium in the semi-final.
Matteo Berrettini and Flavio Cobolli shone at the Davis Cup as they picked up singles victories against Zizou Bergs and Raphaël Collignon.
Italy will play the winner of Spain or Germany as they look to become the first nation to win the Davis Cup in three consecutive years since the United States between 1969 and 1971.
The Davis Cup has changed dramatically over the last few years and John Isner, Sam Querrey, and Steve Johnson have branded it ‘terrible’.
The Davis Cup format is criticised yet again
The Davis Cup’s format now involves all four quarter-finals ties being played in one location rather than the traditional best-of-five matches at a home or away venue.
The change has been controversial and the hosts of Nothing Major have criticised the international tournament’s current guise.
Speaking on their podcast, Johnson said: “It’s terrible. It’s awful. The Davis Cup stinks. The format stinks now. It sucks for the guys. You guys know how much fun we had those weeks.
“When we got there, you played one tie, three out of five, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. I thought it was just great fellowship weeks with your team that you don’t often get to do, right?
“Everything’s individual, so I loved those weeks. Now it’s just so segmented, and you never know if you’re getting a home tie, if you’re away, if you make a finals, it’s a neutral site.
“The Davis Cup should have home ties. That’s it. I just fully believe that they should have home ties. Do it every two years, do it every three years, I don’t care, but we gotta find a way to get back to the old format.”
Isner then pointed out that Jannik Sinner and Lorenzo Musetti’s withdrawal from the competition, despite Italy being the hosts spoke volumes.
The Davis Cup has to make a change… which is your preference?
He said: “That just kind of goes to show you right there that the format is pretty broken. Their top two players are not playing this week in Italy.
Querrey agreed with his fellow hosts by adding: “The guys just don’t care.”
Isner, Querrey, and Johnson reached multiple Davis Cup semi-finals for the United States, but none of the men managed to win the international tournament.
Players are losing interest in the new Davis Cup format
The format change happened in 2021 at the Davis Cup, but this is the first year where the top players have truly gone missing.
Before 2025, the world number one-ranked player has featured in every event in 2021, with Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz, and Sinner leading their nations.
However, this year not only is the world number one Alcaraz missing, but so is the world number two Sinner.
Alexander Zverev is the only player ranked inside the top 10 to play the event, which tells you that the players are not buying into the Davis Cup anymore.
