David Haggerty & Gerard Pique: Two week Tennis Super Cup is option

While there are still concerns about the new Davis Cup format, the two stakeholders claimed that this is only the start and could include women's tennis as well. ITF president David Haggerty and Kosmos founder Gerard Pique are looking into the option of combining the Fed Cup and Davis Cup as one two-week Super Cup.

At the moment, these two separate tournaments are held with their respective conclusions in April and November. As of 2020, both events will have the same structure. “We recently announced the Fed Cup finals will be in Budapest for the next three years beginning in April 2020. Long-term, it would make a lot of sense to have a combined competition, our Davis Cup and our Fed Cup kind of the World Cup of Tennis together.”

According to Haggerty, the challenge is there: “But I think we take things step by step because it takes a lot of stakeholders to make a change like that. But it could be great for the game.” However, the reality of the two tournaments coming to an agreement is still in the cards. The ITF and ATP have spoken about a merger before, but failed to agree.

The idea of a Super Cup is a logical one, yet some of the objections - mainly ATP's - need to be ironed out first, Haggerty commented: "In tennis one of the biggest challenges we face as a sport is the calendar. And the ITF and Kosmos have always said that we are very open to have conversations, and we will with the ATP, there’s new leadership, to talk about the calendar.”

Barcelona centre-back Pique is also optimistic that a deal can be organised where the Davis Cup and Fed Cup could be merged into one. This has been publicly backed by Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal. “I think it’s the best for tennis. It makes no sense to have two different competitions that are very similar. And this is the way we are going. We are very happy that in the next few months I think we will start talking again with the ATP. And I hope in the next few months we can announce something.”

There are still problems to be taken into account with the new format, even without a merger of the Cups. The most noticeable problem was one group match lasted until four in the morning. “To build a fourth court to try to solve the problem with the issue about the times, and if it’s in WiZink Center here in Madrid or maybe to build a fourth court here in La Caja Mágica.” Pique commented.

Some nations also suffered a low attention rate, but Pique sees a way past that objection: “I think that a lot of people didn’t know what to expect or they didn’t know how the format will go. So there were a lot of people that were waiting to see what will happen and then decide for next year.”

Haggerty agreed on the standpoint that not everything is perfect yet: “We’re going to listen to all the stakeholders. We feel that it’s a fantastic start, a great foundation, but there are always improvements, as Gerard said, that we will make.” He concluded.

https://twitter.com/DavisCupFinals/status/1198697039254736897

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