The Consultancy's Guest bloggers | N°3: Merrick Haydon
Will the revamped Davis Cup prove a commercial success? By Merrick Haydon The 2019 Davis Cup took place last week in Madrid, as the annual team tennis event began in its new ‘World Cup-style’ format. The International Tennis Federation (ITF) entered into a 25-year agreement in August 2018 with Kosmos Global Holding, with the tournament now taking place over the course of a single week, in a single location, at the end of the tennis calendar – rather than across the year. The new format and Kosmos, fronted by Barcelona and Spain football star, Gerard Pique, had a mixed response . Australian captain, Lleyton Hewitt, said earlier this year: “We're getting run by a Spanish football player. That's like me coming out and making changes to the Champions League.” While Andy Murray also expressed his reservations about the atmosphere: "The one thing I loved about the Davis Cup before was the atmosphere you played the matches in and the home and away element. They are so