"People don’t want to watch a game for five minutes": Gerard Pique proposes radical tennis changes

Gerard Piqué continues his adventure in tennis and has proposed new changes, alongside reviewing the ITF. The former World Cup champion with Spain participated in a podcast with his former teammate Iker Casillas, where one of the topics discussed was his influence on the changes to the Davis Cup a few years ago.

Piqué took charge of the Davis Cup organization in 2018 through his company Kosmos. The former Spanish footballer wanted to modernize the competition and attract more spectators and tennis stars.

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Among the changes he implemented, he eliminated home and away series and concentrated the final phase in a single seeded location for one week. The format was changed to three sets, and for many, the Davis Cup lost the charm of previous years, with empty stadiums and final stages consisting of only three matches. Over the years, the format has been adapted, but the final phase of the tournament still maintains its dynamics. "We tried to change certain things, but there's no way. The ITF doesn’t want to change anything," he commented.

Piqué's relationship with tennis began in 2018 when his company Kosmos took over the Davis Cup organization for an initial period of 25 years, promising to invest 3 billion euros.

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In the event, Piqué made changes like having fixed venues for the final round. However, the agreement expired in 2023, five years after the contract was signed, due to a lack of funds (40 million dollars annually for the ITF, plus organizational expenses) to meet the commitments.

This time, the former footballer proposed a new change, which could be even more profound as it would mark a significant shift in the current tennis model. “Why do you serve twice in tennis?” Piqué asked. “It’s 30 extra seconds of someone bouncing the ball. People don’t want to see that."

"They also don’t want to watch a game with deuce-advantage-deuce-advantage for five minutes. There should be a golden point at 40-40," he added. “Tennis needs to evolve to adapt to the current speed and attract those young people who are tempted to watch many other things like HBO or Netflix,” concluded the former FC Barcelona central defender.

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