ITF Shakes Up Fed Cup Format

(ATR) The International Tennis Federation has introduced reforms for its top women’s team competition from 2020.

Under new ‘World Cup of Tennis’ branding, 20 countries will compete each year to become world champions, with 12 rather than eight qualifying for the Fed Cup Finals.

Budapest will host the first Fed Cup finals at the Laszlo Papp Budapest Sports Arena on clay next April, and for the two following years. Women’s teams will compete for a total prize fund of $18 million, with $12 million going to players and $6 million to national associations.

Sixteen nations will compete in the 2020 Fed Cup qualifiers next February on a home-and-away basis over five matches to earn one of eight places in the finals. They will join the previous year’s finalists, Australia and France, host nation Hungary and one wild card nation to be confirmed.

The ITF board approved the new format following an extensive review and consultation process with its member nations, the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) and WTA Player Council.

The federation says the format reduces the Fed Cup to two weeks of competition and supports player health through the extension of the off season by moving the finals from November to April.

ITF president David Haggerty said the rebooted Fed Cup "will create a festival of tennis that elevates this flagship women’s team competition to a new level.

"We have consulted and listened to stakeholders and worked with the WTA and its Player Council to make sure the new format represents the interests of the players."

ITF leaders pledged to their national associations during the 2018 AGM that they would introduce reforms to grow the competition’s global audience and enable greater investment into it.

"We believe this bold new Fed Cup format delivers this pledge," he said.

Budapest’s sports chief Balazs Furjes said the city’s hosting of the new-look Fed Cup Finals was "the jewel in the crown of the city’s global tennis ambitions and underlines our status as one of the prime global capitals of sport."

The increased prize money for Fed Cup by BNP Paribas starting in 2020 will include an additional $4.9 million for nations competing below the elite level of the competition.

Reforms of the Fed Cup follows the ITF’s revamp of the Davis Cup last year.

Controversial plans to revamp the 118-year-old competition – one of the sport’s biggest shake-ups for years – were approved at the ITF’s congress in August. It replaces the existing format of four weekends of home and away Davis Cup ties.

The changes are part of a 25-year, $3 billion partnership with investment group Kosmos, which is founded by Barcelona and Spain international footballer Gerard Pique. The group is backed by Hiroshi Mikitani, chairman and CEO of Rakuten, the Tokyo-based e-commerce company.

Madrid will stage the first two editions this November and in 2020. The week-long Davis Cup finals, consisting of 18 teams, will take place at La Caja Magica, which currently hosts the Madrid Open.

Reported by Mark Bisson

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