ITF Confirms Five-City Model for 2022 Davis Cup Finals
December 5, 2021
The International Tennis Federation and Kosmos Tennis have confirmed details of the Davis Cup by Rakuten Finals 2022 at a press conference in Madrid, ahead of the 2021 Davis Cup final in which the Russian Tennis Federation defeated Croatia.
Following the success of this year’s multi-city format, the 2022 edition of the Davis Cup Finals will feature a group stage of 16 nations competing in four groups across four cities. The top eight teams from the group stages will advance to the knock-out stages in a neutral fifth host city. The duration of the Finals will be extended by one day to 12 days.
Four nations have already qualified for the Davis Cup by Rakuten Finals 2022 – this year’s finalists, Croatia and Russian Tennis Federation, and two wild card nations, Great Britain and Serbia, which were announced on Sunday.
Joining those four nations at the Finals will be the 12 winning nations from the 2022 Qualifiers. The draw for the Qualifiers was made ahead of the 2021 final in Madrid, and the ties will take place on a home-and-away basis on 4-5 March 2022.
David Haggerty, ITF President, said: “The vision we set out in 2018 was to create a true world cup of tennis and we should be proud of what we have achieved together with the first two editions of the Davis Cup Finals. A five-city model will provide the flexibility of schedule needed, allow even more fans to enjoy the unique experience of Davis Cup and will secure the economic and commercial sustainability of the competition.”
Enric Rojas, Kosmos Tennis CEO, said: “We have proved that the multi-venue format has worked very well this year, and as anticipated we have had very good attendance figures in both Madrid and Turin. More than 105,000 spectators have visited the event in Madrid and Turin, and we also sold more than 15,000 tickets in Innsbruck prior to the lockdown in Austria. We are convinced that the format we are proposing for 2022 will make the competition even more visible and reach even more fans from all over the world.”
A preferred host city for the final stages of the competition has been identified and an announcement will follow in the coming weeks. The bidding process for the four group venues will be launched on 15 December with a final decision to be made in early 2022.
Further information regarding the Qualifiers draw is available on DavisCup.com. Information regarding the draws for the World Group I Play-offs and World Group II Play-offs, which were also conducted on Sunday, can also be found on DavisCup.com.