Gerard Pique has set up the intriguing possibility of locking horns with Roger Federer over the rival tennis team events that they are involved in promoting.
The Barcelona football star, whose company Kosmos has won the rights to organise the new Davis Cup format, has revealed that he is now looking to hold the 18-team finals jamboree in September rather than November.
That could mean a potential clash from 2019 with the Laver Cup, the Europe versus Rest of the World exhibition event primarily run by Federer and his Team8 management group.
Earlier this month a controversial vote among International Tennis Federation countries saw Kosmos allowed to change the Davis Cup to a system featuring a finals week on one site, with Madrid favourite to be the initial host.
The original proposed date was late November, but as this is in the middle of an already brief off-season many players have indicated they want it brought forward.
Pique told France’s Le Figaro: ‘After talking with most of the players, most prefer the Davis Cup to take place in September. I want to set up a competition in accordance with what they want.
‘All prefer September to November. The season is very long and they want the Davis Cup at that time. At Kosmos, we are working to find the best date for the Davis Cup in September.’
Yet Federer and his team announced last week that the 2019 edition of the Laver Cup will take place from September 20-22 in Geneva. Next year’s US Open will not finish until September 8 and later on in the month the lucrative Asian swing of tournaments begin.
Taking on the influential Federer could be a dangerous game, even with his career near its end. The Laver Cup could, however, be vulnerable, despite its strong financial backing.
This year’s event in Chicago next month is missing several top European players such as Rafael Nadal and Marin Cilic, thereby undermining its credibility as a serious Ryder cup-style competition.
On Friday Federer was guarded, saying: ‘I think we’ve still got a long way to go until we got all the facts on the table from the ITF, what their exact thoughts are about the Davis Cup. I’m only hearing rumours, nothing has really been set in stone yet.’
Further complicating the issue is the ATP Tour setting up, from 2020, a World Team Cup for the men to take place in multiple cities around Australia every January ahead of the Australian Open in Melbourne.
There is the danger of the Davis Cup finals week taking place barely five weeks before another men’s team competition with a similar format, a potentially ludicrous situation.
The Davis Cup changes, voted through in a secret ballot, have already caused controversy with many tennis figures in countries like France, Great Britain, Australia and Germany against them.
There is also understandable resentment within the women’s game that they are being overlooked amid all the frantic activity and butting of heads between rival governing groups.