ITF boss David Haggerty has spoken out against a return to the old Davis Cup format.
by Florian Goosmann
last edited: November 24, 2023, 2:32 p.m
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David Haggerty will remain president of the ITF until 2027
“The home and away format wouldn’t work. The players have told us that in the past,” the ITF boss told the BBC.
Haggerty is considered the man who reformed the Davis Cup and transformed it into the current format – with a finals week in a pre-determined country. Haggerty finalized the deal with the company Kosmos in 2018 for a rumored sum of $3 billion over 25 years. However, the agreement has now collapsed. Nevertheless, Haggerty prevailed again in the election for ITF boss this fall, this time against Dietloff von Arnim.
“It wouldn’t be good competition if we went back to home and away games,” Haggerty continued. “Sometimes the loudest voices are not always the majority.”
In fact, a change to the format was necessary because the top players had repeatedly been missing in previous years because they no longer wanted to organize the – at best – four Davis Cup weekends in the tight tour calendar.
Wawrinka video causes uproar
There was criticism of the current format again in September, when Stan Wawrinka shared a video of the empty stands at the duel between Switzerland and France in Manchester. And sent out a tweet asking whether it was known that the ITF was paying some people to create atmosphere.
Haggerty now also admitted that this was the case. “Regarding the bands… some teams had asked us if we could help them find people from the local university. We put them in touch with them and that helped with the atmosphere they wanted.”
Current final week in Malaga well attended
After all: This week in Malaga the mood seems good and the hall is quite full. According to the British association, the English quarter-final against Serbia was even sold out – with 2,500 fans traveling along.
“I think countries will get used to it. Fans will get used to the (Football) World Cup concept for the Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup,” said Haggerty.
The majority liked what was designed and voted for it, Haggerty continued to defend himself. “It was a deal to make sure we got top players who were capable of playing. And we had a schedule that was reasonable.”
2023-11-24 13:32:00
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