The Davis Cup will launch its new competition format this year. The ITF voted to change the competition’s old format last year.The changes began in February as twenty-four teams played in home and away qualifying matches to fill twelve spots at the tournament. The four teams from last year’s semifinals gained automatic qualification. There will also be two additional wild card teams at the tournament.
New format
Team captains of the participating countries have begun naming their five-man teams. This year, the countries will play in six groups that hold three teams each. The teams will play each other in a round-robin format. There will be three matches, two singles and a doubles match in three sets. The old format featured teams playing five matches, four singles, and a doubles match. The matches were five sets long. The ITF decided to hold the competition after the tennis season. They tennis body also felt that shorter matches would be more entertaining moving forward.
Nadal will be ready in November
Rafael Nadal’s uncle, Toni, has embraced the changes made to the Davis Cup. The 58-year-old has praised the tournament organizers for implementing the changes. He feels that the cup will improve because of the new ideas. He singled out Gerard Pique, who has been one of the advocates for the new cup format. The FC Barcelona player is involved with the company that bought the commercial rights to the Davis Cup. Toni said that the new competition format, which is much like the World Cup, will be great for tennis.
Speaking about his nephew, Toni thinks that Nadal will be motivated to play in the finals. The 19-time Grand Slam champion has been included in the Spanish team that will play in Madrid. Toni said that his nephew will be ready to represent his country. “Tennis is a single sport but when you have the chance to represent your country, it always motivates you a lot. I think that in November he will be fully motivated defending Spain.”
Nadal will play in an exhibition match this week in Kazakhstan. The Spaniard will face Novak Djokovic in a charity match in the Asian country. The world number two also got married to his fiancé Xisca Perello over the weekend. The wedding ceremony took place at the La Fortaleza estate and had three hundred and fifty guests in attendance.
Rafael Nadal’s ranking and performance in 2019
Ranked no.2, the Spaniard played his last match on the 8th of September when he beat Daniil Medvedev 7-5 6-3 5-7 4-6 6-4 in the final in U.S. Open to win his 84th career title.
This year the Spaniard has a 47-6 win-loss record. Rafael has won 4 titles in 2019 in Rome, at the French Open, in Montreal and at the U.S. Open. Nadal was the finalist at the Australian Open.
Rafael Nadal |
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