Spectacular turnaround in tennis

The Davis Cup will be reformed for the 2025 season and at least partially played in home and away games again. As the world association announced on Friday, another qualifying round will replace the group phase in 2025.

At the end of January, 26 nations will initially face each other in 13 duels, in which one team competes at home and one away. The German Davis Cup selection will also be qualified for this round.

The 13 winners will move on to a second qualifying round, in which they will play seven participants in the Final 8 in seven duels in September together with the 2024 Davis Cup winner. The eighth participant in this Final 8, which will be played in knockout mode in November, is the host country, which has not yet been determined for 2025.

In doing so, the host association, the ITF, responded to the ongoing criticism from players, experts and fans of the group games, which often took place in locations where the host team did not take part. The result was half-empty halls and no atmosphere. The electric atmosphere of home and away games that was familiar from previous Davis Cup tournaments was very rare.

The German team met Slovakia, the USA and Chile in China this year.

Alexander Zverev is one of the biggest critics of the existing mode and was already hoping for it last year SPORT1that the world association “makes the right decision and sees that the new system does not work and we go back to the old system”.

The reform of the competition may increase Zverev’s motivation to play for Germany again next year. In the past he had repeatedly emphasized that it was a “big goal” for him to win the Davis Cup one day.

The women’s final round, the Billie Jean King Cup, will also only be held with eight nations instead of twelve. “This is part of the long-standing strategy to bring the World Cup of Tennis events closer together,” said the world association’s corresponding statement.

The BJKC qualifying phase will now be held in seven groups of three teams at seven locations in April. Home and away games should return in qualifying from 2026.

“We welcome the announced format changes for the Billie Jean King and Davis Cup,” said Dietloff von Arnim, President of the German Tennis Association: “The ITF is following the solution that we have repeatedly advocated for at various levels in recent years have.” have.”

In the current season, the German men and women have qualified for the final tournaments. The final event of the Billie Jean King Cup will take place from November 12th to 17th, the Davis Cup final tournament from November 19th to 24th, both played in Malaga.

With sports information service (SID)