Monaco (AFP)
The 2021 Davis Cup finals (25 November-5 December) will be staged not only in Madrid, as initially planned, but also in Innsbruck and Turin, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) announced on Monday.
"Each city will host two of the six groups, then Madrid will host two quarter-finals while Innsbruck and Turin host one each. The Spanish capital will also host the semi-finals and the final," said the ITF in a statement.
The governing body had announced on January 18 an evolution of the controversial format of the competition, introduced in 2019. The duration had been extended from seven to eleven days and the ITF had hinted that two cities could accompany Madrid in the organization.
Another change announced in January but which will not be introduced until 2022, the passage from 18 to 16 teams.
The first edition of the new-format Davis Cup, established in consultation with the ITF by its new owner, the Kosmos group led by football player Gerard Piqué, took place in 2019 in Madrid.
The second edition was canceled in 2020 due to the coronavirus.
The 2019 edition, won by Spain in front of its home crowd, was a popular failure.
The week-long format also caused scheduling issues, with several games ending in the middle of the night.
Kosmos bought the Davis Cup for 3 billion euros over 25 years and made it a competition bringing together all the teams over a few days at the very end of the year, originally in a unique city that was intended to turn.
© 2021 AFP