"Catastrophic": Gilles Moretton lets loose on the "failure" of Gerard Pique's Davis Cup

Jean-Baptiste Sarrazin 10:32 p.m., January 12, 2023, modified at 10:35 p.m., January 12, 2023

After buying the rights to the Davis Cup in 2018, the company Kosmos, managed by Gerard Pique, saw its partnership with the International Tennis Federation (ITF) broken.

Exceptional guest of the 

program (every evening live from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m.), the president of the French Tennis Federation reacted to this announcement.

"This news came this afternoon. I first received a phone call from a member of the Davis Cup Committee who belongs to the ITF and who informed me of this sudden decision, without have the reasons. It's quite surprising. This confirms that in this International Federation everything is quite hidden, it is difficult to understand what is going on there", tackled Gilles Moretton at the microphone of Christophe Huet.

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"A catastrophic record"

Since 2018, the Davis Cup had adopted a whole new formula which players and members of the Federations had difficulty understanding.

The mythical competition had thus lost its audience.

"The Kosmos record is catastrophic. We played the Davis Cup in Germany in Hamburg against the Germans in front of 500 spectators then the Australians in front of 200 spectators and then the Belgians in front of barely a handful of spectators. Those who started in 2018 of this project must now become aware of their failure", saddened the president of the French Tennis Federation.

For Gilles Moretton, "today it is world tennis that is losing the credibility of an event that made the history of tennis."

One thing is certain, the trust between the International Federation (the ITF) led by David Haggerty, and the presidents of world Federations like that of France seems to be cracked. 

"We National Federations, can we trust the International Federation which sold a very important asset, a heritage of world tennis which is the Davis Cup to a commercial company run by a football player who has made a non-existent product in three years and what will become of it", wondered Gilles Moretton.

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Towards a return of the traditional David Cup?

It remains to be seen whether this will sign the return of the traditional Davis Cup formula as yellow ball enthusiasts know it.

The Gerard Piqué version of the Davis Cup must however continue until the end of 2023. "This year the format will continue as it is, so France will play Hungary in the Davis Cup at the beginning of February, then in September other matches and finally a final phase at the end of the year in Spain", explained the president of the FFT in

. 

But what will happen next?

For Gilles Moretton, "the future today is very vague" but not without hope.

"The Davis Cup format must be revised and we must introduce the ATP, the players' association, into the reflection to consider the future," said the president of the French Tennis Federation.

A return to the old formula of the competition could be considered.

For this, the presidents of the World Federations must agree. 

"I'm at the Australian Open on Monday. I'm going to turn to my colleagues (the other presidents of Federations) to see how we can try to avoid a catastrophe and see a heritage of world tennis squandered. “, ended up concluding Gilles Moretton.