The ATP, International Tennis Federation and Kosmos Tennis have announced a strategic alliance from 2023 supporting the Davis Cup by Rakuten, the 122-year tournament that has been changed in recent years.
The partnership has been established to enable collaboration on the competition’s governance and evolution, with ATP granted two of six seats on a newly formed Davis Cup Event Committee alongside the ITF and Kosmos, the investors and promoters of the competition. The partnership officially brings ATP and ITF together across Davis Cup for the first time.
“Our focus is always on creating the best possible experiences for our fans and players,” said ATP Chairman Andrea Gaudenzi. “Delivering compelling international team competitions that dovetail with the year-round calendar and continue to innovate is a vital part of that. The Davis Cup has an incredibly rich history and we’re excited to see this important new alliance drive the event forward from 2023.”
The Davis Cup Finals and Qualifier ties now become an official part of the 2023 ATP Tour calendar with increased promotion on ATP channels. This integration will support players in planning their annual schedule when selected to play in their national Davis Cup team. The Finals will continue under its existing format, offering $15 million in player prize money in 2023.
Davis Cup recorded its highest levels of national participation in its history in 2022, with 137 nations competing in this year’s edition across all levels of the competition. The competition, which has been around for more than a century, underwent a radical reshaping in 2019, moving from an event that was held throughout the year into one where the top 18 teams play over the course of one week with round-robin play before advancing to the quarterfinals for single-elimination the rest of the event.
“This announcement heralds an important new alliance between the ITF, Kosmos and ATP which further strengthens the importance of team competition and Davis Cup’s unique role in elite men’s professional tennis,” added ITF President David Haggerty. “Davis Cup is the largest annual men’s team competition in sport and the sole men’s team competition in the pro tennis calendar where teams are officially selected by their nation. Together with the women’s Billie Jean King Cup, it shows the ITF’s full commitment to delivering spectacular tournaments that players love to play and electrifying battles between nations which fans in the stadium and whole countries love to get behind.”