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Tennis Federation announced Thursday that it has ended its partnership

January 14, 2023

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Davis Cup: from the overhaul to the fall of the new formula, a look back at the fiasco of the association between Kosmos and the International Federation in five dates
While the event company Kosmos has been organizing the tournament since 2019, the International Tennis Federation announced Thursday that it has ended its partnership.
“A total failure.” This observation was made by Gilles Moretton, president of the French Tennis Federation (FFT), after the announcement on Thursday January 12 of the breach of the contract between the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and the event company Kosmos, on the organization of the Davis Cup. A financial failure but also with the players and spectators, who are no longer enamored with the fervor of the competition. “The ITF confirms that its partnership with Kosmos Tennis for the Davis Cup ends in its fifth year,” the ITF wrote on Thursday, adding that it will take over the organization of the competition from the 2023 edition. Five years after signing a contract binding the two protagonists for twenty-five years, the marriage quickly ended. A look back over half a decade of a turbulent format.

2018: redesign of the competition
And radical reform. On August 16, 2018, the International Tennis Federation adopted the Davis Cup reform project in Orlando (United States). Often shunned by the best players in the world, the event must be relaunched both with the players and financially thanks to this new formula. This reorganization garners the approval of nearly 72% of the 120 delegates present. The agreement is signed between the ITF and the investment group Kosmos, chaired by former FC Barcelona player Gerard Pique. It covers three billion dollars (approximately 2.7 billion euros) over twenty-five years and twenty million dollars (18.5 million euros) annually guaranteed to players.

Created in 1900, and organized over four three-day weekends spread over the year, with matches in five sets at home and away, the centenary competition is therefore getting a new look. From 2019, the competition is condensed over two weeks. A first part, disputed in twelve first turns at the beginning of the year. The second part, the final phase, is organized at the end of the season in the form of a one-week tournament between 18 international teams, in three matches (two singles, one doubles), in two winning sets.

From the outset, Australia, the United Kingdom and Germany expressed their opposition to the new formula. Novak Djokovic also doubts the format. “I have the feeling that the date of the Davis Cup is really bad, especially for the best players”, advances the Serb, two months after the announcement of the signing of the project. In France, Yannick Noah, victorious in the event as a player then captain, criticizes the ITF for having “sold the soul of a historic event”.

2019: a mixed first edition
Spain is chosen to host the first two editions of the Kosmos-style Davis Cup. The revised edition is a relative success. The best players in the world are mostly present: Rafael Nadal (number 1, at the time of the final phase), Novak Djokovic (number 2), Matteo Berrettini (number 8), Roberto Bautista-Agut (number 9) and Gaël Monfils (number 10). Former world number 1 Andy Murray is also called up to play with his British team.

On the other hand, Daniil Medvedev (number 5) withdraws, Alexander Zverev (number 7) prefers to play exhibitions in South America. As for Roger Federer (number 3), Dominic Thiem (number 4) and Stefanos Tsitsipas (number 6), their country is not qualified. Rafael Nadal allows Spain to win its sixth silver bowl.

However, the competition is not immune to controversy. Several matches end in the middle of the night, due to an overloaded schedule, and apart from the Spanish matches, the stands are too often sparse. Just as the overall atmosphere, cold and cozy, remains far from the fervor of previous editions.

2020: a blank year marked by Covid-19
For its second year of existence, the new Davis Cup formula suffered a setback, beyond its control. Like many sports competitions, the event has been canceled due to the global coronavirus pandemic. Such a decision had not been taken since the Second World War. The competition organized indoors is not compatible with the sanitary measures in force at the time.

2021 and 2022: redesigns in shambles
In 2021, the event returns modified. First, the final stages now take place not in one, but in three host cities: Madrid (Spain), Innsbruck (Austria) and Turin (Italy). On the other hand, the semi-finals and the final are played in Madrid, in the form of a “Final Four”. Each city organizes the event according to the health regulations in force in each country.
In 2022, the formula is similar to the previous year, with three meetings between April and November (a qualifying phase, a group phase and a final phase). The complex organization with an overloaded calendar, does not attract players when it was a primary objective of the overhaul.

Despite a new formula, the rooms remain empty. Matches in the middle of the week, posters without the best players, high prices partly explain this failure. So many reasons that undermine the financial strength of the contract.

2023: the premature end of the contract
The announcement caused a stir. The International Tennis Federation announces Thursday, January 12 to end the contract binding it to the investment group Kosmos, without specifying the reasons for this early divorce. The partnership, which was to last twenty-five years, actually lasted only five years.

“It is an acknowledgment of total failure of a choice that was made in 2018 by the International Federation to sell an asset. (…) It’s three years lost. Everything has to be rebuilt”, declared at franceinfo, Gilles Moretton, president of the French Tennis Federation. “What I want is for responsible people to be entrusted with this competition, which is part of the heritage of world tennis, he continued. It must be entrusted to people who are not only attracted by the financial aspect”. If the formula planned for 2023 remains unchanged despite the end of the partnership, the future remains uncertain for the years to come. “The DNA of the Davis Cup was the home and away games. It’s an atmosphere that we want to find again,” concluded the president of the FFT.