Djokovic Wants Davis Cup Format Change

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Djokovic Wants Davis Cup Format Change

Novak Djokovic expressed his views on the current Davis Cup format after clinching his trip to the semifinals at the ATP Finals in London on Thursday (see video above at 5:45). The World No.2, a former Davis Cup champion who has played in 23 ties and won 32 matches for Serbia, says the current format is just too grueling for the modern player.

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“This format is not working for the top players, especially for the top players, because it's just completely at the wrong time in the schedule,” he said. “If you go back five years, let's say five, six years, you see the amount of the top players that played at the later stages of the Davis Cup, you see that it lost value.”

Djokovic won the Davis Cup with Serbia in 2010, and it was considered to be one of the biggest reasons that he became the most dominant player in the world the following year.

“I don't know how the future of #DavisCup will look...but there's definitely something radically that has to change.” — Novak Djokovic
— Richard Osborn (@RWOsborn) November 18, 2016

But after so many years in the competition, Djokovic knows how much it can take a toll on the body, with its best-of-five sets on consecutive days.

“Of course, they have to change,” he said. “They need to have the format, in my opinion, the only way to work, is once a year, one or two weeks, two weeks, have a round-robin format, four, five, six groups, have teams play in different locations, then come together in one location and play a knock-out stage, quarterfinals, semifinals, final four, whatever. It's a no-brainer. I'm not the only one to have this kind of opinion about it. Many of the players have been talking about this format and the schedule, top players especially, because it just comes right after Grand Slams, right after World Tour Finals.”

He added: “Playing over three days, best-of-five... I think they should cut it down to two days, best-of-three. Have two singles and one doubles, those kind of things.”

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