Two weeks ago marked the start of a new era in the world of men’s professional tennis with the revamped Davis Cup getting underway.
In August 2018, the ITF voted in favour of making a series of controversial changes to the 119-year-old team competition. A move that divided the tennis community. In November the finals of the tournament will be held over a week and hosted at one location in Madrid. Removing the tradition of home and away ties. As a compromise, the governing body agreed for the February play-offs to be still held under the old system, but the matches would only be played in a best-of-three.
Dirk Hordorff is the vice-president of the German Tennis Federation (DTB). An association that has been against the Davis Cup changes from the beginning. Hordorff had previously named the European countries that voted for the changes, which has been backed by a 25-year $3 billion investment from Kosmos. A company founded by Barcelona F.C. footballer Gerard Pique.
“For sure, if you lose a vote you want to make others responsible for this. To be honest, the ITF and Kosmos tried to Campaign for the new Davis Cup System, and they made this very professionally.” Hordorff told Ubitennis on Tuesday.
“Unfortunately, some countries only believed in the promised money and voted against their Tennis interest, other voted for the new System just because they thought, the old System needed a Reform, and some other voted without even understanding what they did.”
Under the new format, the ITF has stated that many tennis federations around the world will be better off. Pointing out an increase in nations income from the competition and a new player prize fund of $20 million will be in place for the finals.
“My only hope is that the given promises of the ITF and Kosmos will be fulfilled and the whole Davis Cup will not be damaged in reason that Kosmos will reject after they are losing money.” Hordorff reflected.
The rankings
Another new development involved the ranking of the teams in the competition. Countries have been assigned a ranking based on their results over the past four years. Something that has infuriated the Polish Tennis Federation (PZT). Poland has been placed into World Group III under the new format. Even though they scored wins over Romania, Slovenia and Zimbabwe last year to qualify for Group I under the old system. The PZT has launched an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Supporting Poland, Luxembourg has sent a formal letter to the ITF. In it, the federation said they ‘disagreed’ and was ‘disappointed’ by the new system. The letter has also been signed by the national director of the Davis Cup, Markus Stegmann. Whilst the move have been welcomed, Hordorff points out Luxemburg’s absence from the Davis Cup vote last year.
“Luxembourg should have attended the AGM in Orlando and vote against the Davis Cup Reform.” He said.
“The DTB had a clear position in Orlando, we voted against the Davis Cup Reform and we still have the same point of view.
“We also made clear, that we believe that the Transition Tour is badly planned and we are not in favour of this. But there was no vote about this, in fact that this is a management decision and they don’t need the nations vote to make this happen.” He added.
Poland’s situation is not a unique one. Both Namibia and Kenya qualified for the Euro/Africa Group II in 2018, but now they are not ranked high enough to play in that category. James Kenani, who is the chairman of Tennis Kenya, said his country has a disadvantage because they didn’t play in the Davis Cup during 2015. Therefore they were unable to win any ranking points.
Kenya, along with Poland, launched an appeal to the ITF Arbitration Committee in London, but were unsuccessful.
The 2019 election
In September there are set to be presidential elections taking place at the ITF. The position has been held by David Haggerty since 2015. A longtime tennis industry executive, Haggerty had previously served as the chairman of Head U.S.A and worked for the USTA. Under his presidency, the American has overseen the transformation of the Davis Cup and the implementation of the Transition Tour. Both of which have been controversial.
“The last four years under Dave Haggerty was a Disaster for Tennis. But it’s not only him who is responsible for this mess.“ Hordorff stated.
At the end of last year Ireland’s Dave Miley has said he would challenge for the presidency. Miley had previously worked for the ITF for 25 years and was once in charge of overseeing the juniors, veterans and wheelchair activities of the organisation.
It is unclear as to how likely it would be that Haggerty will be re-elected for a second term. Although Hordorff believes it is time for a ‘new leadership’ to be implemented.
“I only can hope that the ITF gets a Leadership which is serving the game and take care of the interest of their member nations.” He said.
“What the ITF needs is a new leadership with clear vision, with management skills, with an understanding of how to unite the nations and to work together with the different governing organisations in Tennis like WTA and ATP.”
The ITF election will take place during the annual AGM meeting in Lisbon, Portugal. The conference will take place between September 24-27.
Part 1 of Ubitennis’ interview with Hordorff can be read here – EXCLUSIVE: ‘I’ve Been Contacted By 200 Players’ – Tennis Chief Hordorff On Why The Transition Tour Must Change
