{"id":332174,"date":"2023-09-19T01:28:36","date_gmt":"2023-09-19T01:28:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=332174"},"modified":"2023-09-19T02:01:40","modified_gmt":"2023-09-19T02:01:40","slug":"why-this-wawrinka-video-led-to-davis-cup-furore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=332174","title":{"rendered":"Why this Wawrinka video led to Davis Cup 'furore'"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian tennis legend and Davis Cup<\/a> committee chair Mark Woodforde has expressed his disappointment after Stan Wawrinka<\/a> took to social media to publicly criticise the international team event.<\/p>\n

During Switzerland's tie with France, Wawrinka posted a video to social media highlighting the deserted stands at Manchester Arena for the clash.<\/p>\n

The images were a stark contrast to the 9,000-strong home crowd that attended Britain's tie with Australia the following day.<\/p>\n

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\"Stan<\/p>\n

The \ufeffthree-time grand slam champion later claimed he has played in Challenger Tour matches, the second tier to the ATP Tour, that had a better turnout and greater atmosphere than the Davis Cup in its current format.<\/p>\n

"The difference between today (Friday) and three days ago (Tuesday), it's not normal. I played some Challenger tournaments this year and there were way more people and a way better atmosphere than when we played France," he told The Independent.<\/p>\n

The criticism comes \ufeffafter Australian team captain Lleyton Hewitt also called out crowds<\/a> at the event.<\/p>\n

A changeover in administration from the International Tennis Federation to private investment group Kosmos in 2018 triggered several changes to the competition's format with home-and-away ties replaced by week-long group stages and finals featuring multiple countries all at the same neutral venue.<\/p>\n

"You have to try new things, that's for sure, but it's been quite a clear disaster. This company, they finish a 25-year deal after five years so that means something is wrong. And the people who took this decision are still deciding for the future of Davis Cup," Wawrinka said.<\/p>\n

In response, Woodforde questioned the motive of those who have criticised the tournament and slammed Wawrinka's decision to publicly air his criticism.<\/p>\n

\"Stan<\/p>\n

"It's in the minority some of those voices, some of them are politically motivated, which is unnecessary. Stan created a bit of a furore by filming the stands. We're always welcome to having feedback, it's unfortunate he did it in such a public way," he said.<\/p>\n

The tournament's restructuring has been a source of frustration for both players and tennis purists. However, Woodforde believes that the focus on the since-collapsed Kosmos deal<\/a> has been able to mask the problems that existed with the old format.<\/p>\n

"We're fully aware that some players will say, 'Why don't we go back to that home-and-away format?' That format was not working. That's why the change came about. The old format was killing the Davis Cup," he said.<\/p>\n

"We had nations telling the ITF they were unhappy, it needed to change. We had our title sponsor telling us we needed to make changes, we needed to keep the competition alive, and we needed to make it fresh.<\/p>\n

"The home-and-away format had been an integral part of the competition historically, we haven't got rid of it, it's still there, it's still alive in the lower groups as well. Even without Kosmos being involved, we think the changes we've made are positive.<\/p>\n

"It's in the minority some of those voices, some of them are politically motivated, which is unnecessary. Stan created a bit of a furore by filming the stands. We're always welcome to having feedback, it's unfortunate he did it in such a public way."<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

While insisting that organisers are open to player feedback on the format, Woodforde ruled out a return to the previous setup.<\/p>\n

"It really does make it look like we're not doing a great thing for the competition, which couldn't be further from the truth," he said.<\/p>\n

"In 2024 the competition will remain as is. We feel this is the format where we can see mileage with it.<\/p>\n

"I don't think there is a format that we are going to ever have 100 per cent thumbs up from the players and the nations. Through our cooperation with the ATP, we are doing an assessment looking at the options. I think we leave the door open for tweaks."<\/p>\n

At the conclusion of the group stage, the top two teams from each of the four groups will progress to the knockout finals in Malaga, Spain in November.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Australian tennis legend and Davis Cup committee chair Mark Woodforde has expressed his disappointment after Stan Wawrinka took to social media to publicly criticise the […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":332176,"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\/332174"}],"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=332174"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":332180,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332174\/revisions\/332180"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/332176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=332174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=332174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=332174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}