Andy Murray Puts His Weight Behind Plans for Tennis World Cup
There could be a Tennis World Cup, and many of the top players including Andy Murray are backing the proposal.
The plans on the table for a Tennis World Cup propose a biannual tournament that will be played over ten days and in which thirty two teams would compete. The matches would be considerably shorter that usual and there will be penalties for taking too long between points. There is also the proposal to play tag type matches in which players are substituted compulsorily during a match.
One proposal that seems to be somewhat controversial is to exclude women from the event, though many believe that this would lead to larger audiences.
It also seems that the Tennis World Cup would displace the Davis Cup, which many think has become somewhat jades and lacking in appeal to a wider audience. Murray has said that despite enjoying the Davis Cup, he would be in favour of replacing it with this new format.
The Cup is being branded as a Grand Slam of Nations and was dreamt up by an Australian sports marketing organisation. They believe that the new format will appeal to a younger generation of fans, citing their belief that younger people do not have the attention span necessary to watch five set matches.
The World Cup would be staged in September/October in Europe. The format would be group qualifiers with eight groups of four and with sixteen players proceeding to a knock out event. Single matches would be the best of five sets.
Andy Murray is the 4th favourite to win the Australian Open at 6/1. Favourite is Roger Federer at 3/1 at extrabet, followed by Rafael Nedal at 4/1 at totesport and Juan Martin Del Potro at 11/2 at expext.com.
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