The President of the International Tennis Federation says the idea that top players are not representing their country in the Davis Cup is a ‘false feeling’ amid the absence of three top 10 stars from this week’s finals.
David Haggerty has defended the format of the event which is concluding in Bologna, Italy with an eight-team knockout tournament. However, Italy’s top player, Jannik Sinner, isn’t playing after opting to have a longer off-season. Fellow compatriot and world No.7 Lorenzo Musetti is another absentee due to a combination of both physical and personal reasons. Finally, Carlos Alcaraz withdrew late due to suffering a hamstring injury while competing at the ATP Finals.
Both Alcaraz and Sinner have indicated they would support a move to hold the Davis Cup every other year in order to increase its appeal and attract more top names to the event. However, Haggerty has dismissed the suggestion that the event is failing to attract star names. Alexander Zverev was the only top-10 player participating in this year’s Finals.
“Davis Cup has been, is and always will be, a team competition. It’s representing your nation and playing for your country,” he said.
“I’ve seen a lot of emotion this week with players after their matches, during their matches, emotions that you don’t see every week.
“There’s this false feeling out there that top players don’t represent their nation. That’s not true. Some of those top players that played in the qualifier round or the second qualifier round didn’t make it to the Finals. We had many top players that have played.”
Feliciano Lopez, the Davis Cup finals tournament director, added that the issue of higher-ranked players missing events is something that has happened across the Tour and is not specific to one tournament. However, Alcaraz and Sinner have only voiced the idea of holding the Davis Cup every two years and not any other event.
“I think the fact that the top players are not participating in all the best tennis tournaments in the world, this is something that we all, all the tournaments throughout the year, suffer,” said Lopez.
“The calendar is congested. There’s so many tournaments. For them to participate in all the tournaments, it’s very difficult.
“The Masters 1000s are also suffering this same issue where eventually either Carlos, Sinner, any other top player in the world, they’re not playing.
“It’s a main problem that tennis has.”
There are still those who would rather see the Davis Cup revert back to its original format before significant changes took place. It is unlikely that such a move will happen anytime soon, but the ITF insists they are open to making tweaks in the future if needed.
“I think we can always think about the future. We’re always open to making the competition the best it can be,” Haggerty commented.
“I think that’s reflected by the change that we made this year with the home and away in September, to strengthen the competition, to take it to more countries and have that feeling around the world.”
The top tier of the 2025 Davis Cup featured 26 nations – 14 ranked 3rd-16th from the 2024 Finals and the 12 winners from World Group 1. They took part in 13 home-or-away ties with the winners progressing to the Qualifiers second round, as well as the 2024 runners-up. Then, in the second round, the seven winners progressed to this week’s finals along with the host nation.
