Federer and Djokovic Unlikely to Play Davis Cup in 2019

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Federer and Djokovic Unlikely to Play Davis Cup in 2019

The new look 2019 Davis Cup finals are looking less alluring, now that Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Alexander Zverev have voiced their reluctance about the new format. Zverev confirmed that he will not the play while in Shanghai this week, while Federer and Djokovic stated that they are also unlikely to play the finals, which are set to take place from November 18 to 24 in Madrid.

"I highly doubt it, of course,” Federer told reporters in Shanghai. “We'll see what happens. I don't think this was designed for me, anyhow. This was designed for the future generation of players.”

Djokovic, too, seems to be a likely no-show. He cited conflict between the new ATP World Cup event, which is set to begin in January of 2020, among other reasons. From the beginning, both Djokovic and Federer were unhappy that the players were not consulted about the new Davis Cup format, which is now headed up by Kosmos and Gerard Pique.

“I am not 100 per cent sure at the moment,” Djokovic said (see him talk about it above, at 7:28 on the video above). “I just feel like the date of the Davis Cup is really bad, especially for the top players. Between the two, I will prioritize the World Team Cup because that’s a competition of ATP. … But also I think and I hope that there will be a larger discussion between the players to understand how we are going to approach these two competitions. Or hopefully we can make it to the point where we can have one big Super World Cup, if you want to call it that, or whatever it is, because that’s the best thing for our sport. But the way it seems right now, we are going to have two at the moment.”

Zverev says he doesn’t like the Davis Cup time frame either. The 21-year-old German says he wants to end his season after the ATP Finals in order to have a proper off-season.

The 18-nation Davis Cup final will feature group play for four days, where the field will be divided into six groups of three. The six group winners and the two second-placed teams with the best records will take place in knockout quarterfinals. Winning teams could have singles players that play as many as six singles matches in the seven-day period. In late November that’s a lot to ask.

Germany’s Zverev wants no part of it.

“Because in November I do not want to play tennis anymore," Zverev said when asked why he doesn’t want to attend. "I think all the top guys will say the same thing. We have one and a half months off in our season, and that's end of November and December. Making a tournament end of November which is 10 days playing and competing, it's crazy. By the end of the year we are all tired."

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