Davis Cup Finals set to add host cities and fewer nations in 2022

Rumours have swirled throughout the Davis Cup Finals this past week about the future of the tournament and it has been revealed that there will be more host cities and fewer nations competing in 2022.

This in order to keep the team event sustainable, organisers said this past Sunday.

Four cities seemingly will host the group stages in 2022, with another venue likely being Abu Dhabi as previously mooted hosting the knockout stages. This year saw the start of this plan with Madrid, Innsbruck and Turin added in the groups.

Each city will host matches from one of the four-team groups, with the top two teams advancing to the knockout stage. There will also be 16 teams reduced from 18 this year.

"We are constantly thinking of how to improve, adjust for the future and looking to the edition of 2022,” Kosmos CEO Enric Rojas said. "We are going to try again to do another adjustment, a bit of an evolution, for having four different cities hosting the group stage, and then going to a neutral city for playing the final part of the competition.

“We think that with that small adjustment and evolution we are going to have even more fan engagement and more people in the arenas because of having four cities with extra home interest," he said. "It’s going to give us, in our view, the final piece of becoming a real successful event and the real World Cup of Tennis.”

This comes as it was revealed that Abu Dhabi was not agreed in time to become the neutral host next year hence the multiple cities element to the competition.