International Tennis Federation officials have “wrecked the most historic competition in the game” and must “resign and move on”, says Australian tennis legend Todd Woodbridge.
The 22-time grand slam champion has also made the disturbing prediction that the Davis Cup will be dead in five years’ time.
Woodbridge’s comments follow those of former Australian tennis superstar Lleyton Hewitt, who said last week that the ITF had “sold its soul” in handing over control to an independent company headed up by Barcelona football ace Gerard Pique.
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After the ITF linked with Kosmos in 2018 to secure $3 billion over 25 years, it put the investment group – an entity with no expertise in tennis – in charge of running the Davis Cup.
The result is matches being decided by the best-of-three-sets format, a group stage preceding the knockout phase and a select number of cities being picked to host the tournament.
There are now also plans in place to hold the Davis Cup finals in Abu Dhabi from 2022.
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“What player in their right mind is going to go to Abu Dhabi and give themselves two weeks off before starting the new season?” Woodbridge said on 2GB’s Wide World of Sports radio.
“There will be no off-season, there will be no time to prepare.
“The people that are making these decisions really need to take a look at themselves, because this event, I think, won’t be with us in five years’ time.”
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Sam Groth, a former mainstay of Australia’s Davis Cup sides, followed up Woodbridge’s lashing with a spray of his own.
“I’ll tell you exactly the type of player who’s going to show up to a 14-day event in Abu Dhabi,” Groth said.
“It’s the players who are defending the event currently that I am sure are having payments on the backside to support what is now called the Davis Cup Rakuten finals. This is not the Davis Cup. The ones that are going to turn up are exactly like Novak Djokovic, in my opinion, who spoke, rebutting Lleyton’s comments … I don’t have facts on this, but … this group is obviously spending a lot of money and they have some big financial backers in Abu Dhabi.
“For a guy that wants less tournaments throughout the year, a shorter season, to support something that plays into mid-December, is very contradictory.”
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Woodbridge was not done.
“Should (the ITF administrators) still be there? That’s the question,” Woodbridge said.
“I think that if you’ve wrecked the most historic competition in the game you probably have to resign and move on.”
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