The Davis Cup is a unique, one-of-a-kind competition that offers tennis stars the opportunity to compete as part of a team.
It’s a refreshing change-up from the solo monotony of the ATP and WTA Tour, which can often be a lonely experience, particularly for singles players.
So, when this ‘World Cup of tennis’ rolls around, excitement is high, even from the top players who have taken issue with the schedule previously.
However, there was one change made nearly six years ago now that completely changed how the Davis Cup was formatted, as they strived to find a cemented place for the tournament that did not burden the world’s best.
Some very high-profile names became vocal detractors of this move.
The big change made to the Davis Cup in 2019
The proposed changes were first recommended by Gerard Piqué, a footballer famed for his time playing for Barcelona and the Spanish national team.
He has been keen to offer changes to make football more exciting and adapted to a younger audience, and with his company, Kosmos, he offered a solution that he felt the Davis Cup could follow.
In a $3bn deal between Piqué’s company and the ITF, the home-away system was instead replaced by an 18-team tournament played over a week in Madrid.
24 teams would enter into a qualifying round in February, retaining the home and away format, with the 12 winners securing their spot in that end-of-year final.
Naturally, not everyone was enamoured with this alteration.
How Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray reacted to the Davis Cup change
Many were opposed to such a huge change, and this was made blatantly apparent after the first few iterations of the revamped format were debuted.
Andy Murray, having watched France and Australia compete in a near-empty stadium, would admit: “We’re fortunate here because we get to play all the matches in front of a brilliant atmosphere and a great crowd.
“It is a shame when France and Australia – two of the biggest tennis nations who love the Davis Cup – are playing in what feels like an empty stadium.
“It’s a 10,000-seater arena and when it’s empty, it feels wrong. The format will have to change if it’s going to be successful again. All the players love the home and away ties, I haven’t heard any player who says that they don’t. The fans love the home and away ties as well. Hopefully, there’s a way we can get it back to that.”
Novak Djokovic was another who criticised the changes, as he argued: “I just feel like the date of the Davis Cup is really bad, especially for the top players. Between the two, I will prioritise the World Team Cup because that’s a competition of the 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.”
It was a shame to see such a huge, unpopular change made to such a prestigious event, with Roger Federer giving an emotional reaction after winning the Davis Cup in 2015.
Fortunately, 2025 marked a step back in the right direction for the Davis Cup, reintroducing seven home-or-away ties held over two days in September ahead of the grand finale later in the year.
