Gerard Pique has hit back at criticism of his role in the changes to the Davis Cup and believes the new format will prove a success.
The likes of Lleyton Hewitt, Alexander Zverev and Roger Federer have questioned why the Barcelona defender’s Kosmos investment group have been allowed to implement sweeping changes to the Davis Cup, nicknaming it the ‘Pique Cup’.
The new-look format will see 18 nations play in a week-long World Cup-style tournament in Madrid, with ties reduced to consisting of two singles matches and one doubles clash.
The six group winners and two highest-ranked runners-up will then go through to the knockout stages of the revamped £2.15bn competition.
Questions have been asked about why a footballer has been allowed to make so many changes to one of the sport’s oldest competitions but Pique is standing by the alterations.
“In the future we will see this competition as one of the biggest in the calendar of tennis,” he said. “I’m positive about it. It will be very difficult to convince everyone the first year, but our idea is that this is a long way to go.
“We understand that we are new in this tennis world, and we want to respect everyone and how the calendar is structured right now. “We don’t want to have any conflict whatsoever with any other part of tennis.
We are proud that we are in November. We know that the players will be very tired. We pray that they will be fit.”
