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Paris (AFP) – The International Tennis Federation (ITF) has decided to regain control of the organization of the Davis Cup and to end the partnership with Kosmos initiated in 2018, it announced Thursday in a press release to AFP.
“The ITF confirms that its partnership with Kosmos Tennis for the Davis Cup ends in its fifth year,” writes the ITF.
The investment group Kosmos, chaired by former Spanish footballer Gerard Piqué, offered a largely revisited formula for team competition more than a century old since its 2019 edition.
“The ITF has ensured financial contingencies are covered and, as custodians of the competition, we will run the 2023 qualifiers and finals as planned, with the eight-team finals staged in Malaga. , in Spain, in November”, she specifies however.
A source familiar with the matter explains that the ITF and Kosmos have failed to reach a financial agreement.
Since its radical reform, and the abandonment in particular of the popular formula of home and away matches (first round excepted) and matches in five sets, the redesigned Davis Cup was struggling to convince.
The president of the French Tennis Federation Gilles Moretton welcomed this decision. “I have always fought once morest this new format of the Davis Cup, an institution in our sport. It is a great victory for tennis,” he wrote in a message sent to several media including AFP.
However, the ITF has not commented at this stage on the Davis Cup formula beyond the 2023 edition.
© 2023 AFP
