Sydney (AFP)
The world number 1, Rafael Nadal, called again Sunday for the merger of the ATP Cup, of which he disputed the final with Spain, with the Davis Cup, asking the tennis authorities to "resolve" the situation.
"The ATP Cup is a great competition but, at the same time, I can't help but think that (playing editor's note) two World Cups in a month is not sustainable," said the Spaniard in conference release after losing to Novak Djokovic, tying Serbia and Spain on a par.
Saying "tired" by the sequence of matches since the start of the competition, Rafael Nadal gave up on Sunday to play the decisive double in the final of the ATP Cup. "It's a long competition. We start the season straight away," he said.
The first edition of the ATP Cup, which brought together 24 national teams in Australia to launch the men's tennis season, is played in a format similar to the Davis Cup, whose new formula took place six weeks earlier in Madrid, and was won by Spain.
But if the ATP Cup is organized by the men's circuit, the ATP, the Davis Cup is managed by the International Tennis Federation (IFT). The coexistence, not to say competition, of these two competitions, causes "confusion" for the spectators, according to the Majorcan for whom the problem must be resolved "for the good of our sport".
"We have to find a way to settle this and find an agreement between the IFT and ATP to create a big World Cup, not two. It is difficult to mobilize the best players for two events," he said. he lamented.
The problem of competition between the two competitions was already raised earlier in the year by Canadian Denis Shapovalov, but also by Serbian Novak Djokovic, who chairs the ATP players' council.
"We have to have a big World Cup, whatever you call it," he said.
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