‘Good for promotion’ – Djokovic on his ideas to revamp the Davis Cup

He already has the record of most weeks at No 1 in history – and Novak Djokovic has since been saying that his two big priorities now are Grand Slams and representing his country.

Following his semi-finals loss to Alexander Zverev at the Nitto ATP Finals in Turin, Djokovic quickly shifted his focus to the Davis Cup, where he will try to lead Serbia to the trophy.

“Davis Cup went from one extreme to the other a few years ago, when the whole competition was held in one city (Madrid), which I did not like at all,” Djokovic told Serbian journalists in Turin. “On the other hand, I do not think that the old format is the best solution either. My vote goes to something in between, something similar to what they are trying to do now.”

The world No 1 has a suggestion how the current format can be upgraded, in his opinion.

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“Actually, I would add three more hosts, so that there is a group in each city, followed by a knockout phase in one city. Also, I would change the hosts every two years, just like I would do with the ATP Finals: I feel that these two competitions represent a great opportunity to take our sport in places where it is not that popular at the moment, which would be good for promotion.”

In Group F in Innsbruck, Serbia will face Germany and Austria. Djokovic followed the team’s preparations while he was in Italy, and was in daily contact with captain Viktor Troicki before he joined the team on Tuesday.

“The bad news is that we are going to play in front of empty stands (in Innsbruck, due to Covid-19 restrictions in Austria), but Serbia is in our hearts; we know that we enjoy big support and we will try to bring joy to our people back home. The weeks I am representing Serbia are one of the most significant ones for me – ATP Cup and Davis Cup. I hope that we are going to be successful.”

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Serbia last won the Davis Cup title in 2010. Should Djokovic lead his team to glory again, his season would then end on December 5. Djokovic said that he will rest for some time after the Davis Cup: he has not yet made a schedule and will speak to his team.

“All of my attention is on the Davis Cup now. The end of the season is very late, but it is what it is. We want to go all the way: we have a team that is both young and experienced, and we have a doubles specialist in Nikola Cacic, which is very important in this format,” Djokovic concluded.