{"id":331912,"date":"2023-09-17T22:23:07","date_gmt":"2023-09-17T22:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=331912"},"modified":"2023-09-18T02:02:19","modified_gmt":"2023-09-18T02:02:19","slug":"hewitt-demands-heads-roll-over-davis-cup-disaster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=331912","title":{"rendered":"Hewitt demands heads roll over Davis Cup 'disaster'"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lleyton Hewitt<\/a> has called for heads to roll over the lack of crowds at the Davis Cup<\/a>, labelling it a "disaster".<\/p>\n

While\ufeff Australia is among the eight teams who've qualified for the knockout finals in Malaga in November, host team Spain was not – leaving the event without the buzz of a Carlos Alcaraz-led home team.<\/p>\n

The competition's restructure over the last four years has been a source of frustration for tennis purists, with home-and-away ties replaced by week-long group stages and finals featuring multiple countries all at the same venue.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Disaster for Wallabies in shock World Cup loss<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\ufeffREAD MORE:<\/strong> 'An inspiration': Rugby league 'trailblazer' dead\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Legends defend 'human being' referee after blunders<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Speaking to reporters in Manchester, Hewitt could not hide his displeasure in light of poor crowds for neutral teams and strong numbers for games involving Team Britain.<\/p>\n

The former world No.1 said that was a direct result of the changes made to the event, joining the chorus of criticism surrounding the new format.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"I've said for years the two greatest things that Davis Cup had was the best-of-five sets, because it was the pinnacle of our sport, and the home and away format," Hewitt said.<\/p>\n

"Playing in front of 500 or 1000 people, it's not the same. But as I've told my team all the time, the pride comes in wearing the green and gold, so for us no matter what the format is, we're still gonna go out there and leave it all on the line.<\/p>\n

"But do I agree this format is good? No, not for a minute.<\/p>\n

"We've gotta get rid of people at the top … we've seen what's happened, it was meant to be a 25-year thing and it's turned into a four-year disaster.<\/p>\n

"So until changes are made, we're gonna sit back and go through exactly the same stuff every year.<\/p>\n

\"Code<\/p>\n

"I can say until the cows come home, but they've really screwed it up."<\/p>\n

The new format has been under a cloud since\ufeff former footballer Gerard Pique and the International Tennis Federation (ITF) organisers adopted changes to the event in a bid to make it more viable.<\/p>\n

Instead\ufeff the deal, which was supposed to pour $4.7 billion into tennis over 25 years, collapsed this year.<\/p>\n

"It's been quite a clear disaster," said Stan Wawrinka during the event.<\/p>\n

British great Andy Murray said: "It is a shame when France and Australia, two of the biggest tennis nations who love their Davis Cup, and they're playing in front of what feels like an empty stadium."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lleyton Hewitt has called for heads to roll over the lack of crowds at the Davis Cup, labelling it a "disaster". While\ufeff Australia is among […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":331914,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331912"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=331912"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331912\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":331916,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331912\/revisions\/331916"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/331914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=331912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=331912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=331912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}