Gerard Pique on Roger Federer not playing Davis Cup: "He has Laver Cup, it's his baby"

It was a new format that players tried this year and many were happy with it. Pique spoke about trying to reach an agreement with Roger Federer since the new format was introduced.

"Since the day that we arrived to deal with the ITF and then in the Assembly we -- the federations approved the new format -- we've tried to sit down with him. I had so many conversations with his agent, with Tony Godsick, and since day one it was a very good relationship. In fact, Tony Godsick said once that, I think it would be good if you invite him and you send a formal letter, and we did that.

"I mean, we send a formal letter of invitation to Tony Godsick so he can send it to Roger. And all of a sudden, I don't know what happened, but all what they were saying was not the same that we -- that they were saying in the meetings. And that's it. I don't want to create any situation or -- he prefers not to play Davis Cup. Now even if he wants he can't because Switzerland is not qualified. But it's okay, he's a great player. He's, for a lot of people, considered the best player in the history of this game."

Gerard Pique also spoke about Laver Cup what is an event organized by Roger Federer. He understands that Roger cares about his event and wants it to grow as big as possible.

"And I really respect, and I said a lot of times, because he is my idol, he was my idol since a kid when I was following tennis. For a lot of reasons, that some of them I know and some of them maybe I don't know, the situation is this one. They have, or he has Laver Cup and, obviously, it's his baby, his competition, and he wants to protect and obviously to create as big as possible this exhibition.

"And I totally understand. So, in our side, what we will try to do is to try to put Davis Cup obviously in another level because we are talking about 119 years of history. And, I mean, I think that you cannot compare both events. But we will try to do the best we can for our competition to make it as big as possible. And this is our work and our job to do."

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