If the tennis players had chosen their favorite football player, Gerard Piqué would definitely not have been at the forefront. The defender of Barcelona and the owner of the investment group Kosmos, who embarked on the controversial revolution of the traditional Davis Cup with fervor a year ago, is facing relentless critical voices.
The ITF announced a final decision a few days ago: there will be no Davis Cup this year.
“It’s a huge disappointment, but we don’t know how the situation will develop in each country, it’s hard to predict. We have to ensure the safety of everyone. But our ambition persists and we want to bring a great tournament in 2021,” Piqué said.
But not everyone believed his regrets. The French daily L’Equipe came up with speculation based on financial facts: The cancellation of the final race in Madrid Piquém and his company came in handy, the virus is just an excuse.
After last year’s premiere, Kosmos reported a deficit of 35 million euros, according to the daily, the actual losses should have been about 15 million higher. And even if they didn’t, the organizers lost almost a billion crowns in terms of.
The event has been criticized for being unprepared, hurt by massive protests from tennis and officials, who see the new format as the destruction of one of the best tennis traditions. The idea of the Davis Cup originated in 1899, it is the oldest team tennis competition in the world.
In addition, last year the spectators did not go to the matches in La Caja Magica, Madrid, only the duels of the winning home Spaniards with the phenomenal Rafael Nadal in the line-up were interested.
All this contributes to the assumption that Piqué welcomed the opportunity to save this year and try for a better plan until 2021. The unrealized year will be loss-making anyway, but Kosmos will be able to keep 18 million euros in its accounts, which would be the amount of the prize money for players and unions.
“It’s a return, due to the clearly lower costs. If you lose that amount during the first year and now you have the opportunity to get your hands off it, you will do it,” writes L’Equipe.
The whole case is again an opportunity for Piqué’s critics, who are certainly not few in the tennis industry.
Nicolas Mahut, the holder of a doubles career grand slam, accused Pique of not being too interested in the Davis Cup. “We have no information from him. We can only read the official statement, otherwise he does not communicate with us,” the Frenchman said, admitting that as soon as he heard Piqué’s name, he was “extremely upset.”
“I would like him to make as much effort to save the Davis Cup as to innovate it. He destroyed something that took more than a century,” he called on the footballer.
One of the loudest critics of the Davis Cup revolution was and still is the president of the Czech Union Ivo Kaderka.
“It’s a pity. It’s a pity all the more so because when I warned that the new model would be easily vulnerable to exogenous shocks, for example, no one wanted to hear it. In addition, the Pique Davis Cup was played anyway except for home matches with almost no spectators, I don’t understand, “he commented on the ITF decision.
The captain of the Czech team, Jaroslav Navrátil, did not understand the cancellation of the year either. “I was looking forward to Madrid, it’s a pity. When the tournaments start, I was counting on the final week this year. All the more so because the situation in Spain has calmed down,” he said.
Some time ago, Piqué pitted one of the most influential opponents, the Swiss Roger Federer.
He began negotiating with the ATP about joining the Davis Cup with the ATP Cup, a team competition whose first year took place in January this year. However, he suggested September as a potential date, after the US Open. That is, the period in which the Swiss champion pampers his so far very attractive and successful project of the team Laver Cup.
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