Roger Federer has been panned by a leading journalist for his comments about the new format of the Davis Cup that will be played from 2019.
Having expressed his discontent over the new Davis Cup format, Federer had expressed his reluctance to play in that competition. The new Davis Cup format will move away from the original 16-team format where teams played on a home and away basis, and will now have a year-ending competition that will be contested by 18 teams at a single venue.
The Swiss world number three had said it ran the risk of being called the Pique Cup. Gerard Pique, a Spanish footballer has been one of those at the forefront of presenting this new format to the tennis authorities.
However, Catherine Whitaker, who hosts a tennis podcast, thinks Federer’s comments are a ‘cop-out’.
Speaking on The Tennis Podcast, Whitaker said:
“I found Roger Federer’s justification for probably not playing really disappointing and an absolute cop-out to say that this was designed for the future generation of players.”
She added:
“He knows his power in tennis. He’s well aware of it and he uses it for great good a lot of the time.”
Whitaker reasoned Federer understood the power he had in committing to featuring in this new Davis Cup even for a season and the push that it would give this competition.
She said Federer’s participation in the tournament would send a particular message to the others on the circuit and the Swiss maestro understood the repercussions of his comments.
Whitaker signed off saying, ““So for him to say ‘it’s not really for me’, I find that really disappointing from Roger Federer.“
Federer’s comments were followed by the second-ranked Novak Djokovic and Germany’s upcoming superstar Alexander Zverev also reconsidering whether they wanted to feature in the tournament.
On the other hand, Pique, the co-promoter of the Kosmos Group at the helm of this new Davis Cup format, has said he’s confident Rafael Nadal will feature in the Davis Cup. He also indicated there would be further talks with Federer about this issue.
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