Davis Cup free of Gerard Pique’s Kosmos as their $3B deal ends within 5 years

An early end to Kosmos' profitable deal with ITF will lead to changes in the Davis Cup.

Davis Cup free of Gerard Pique’s Kosmos as their $3B deal ends within 5 years

Gerard Pique partnerships with ITF

ITF announced that it was ending its Davis Cup partnership with Gerard Pique‘s private investment company, Kosmos. A deal of 25 years was ended yesterday by ITF within 5 years of its commencement. In 2018, former Barcelona football player, Gerard Pique who is also the founder of Kosmos company made a deal to invest $3B in the next 25 years to develop the historic tournament.

Davis Cup was struggling off late to attract audiences as many star players opted out of this tournament usually. Pique and his team made some significant changes to increase the popularity of the sport. However, the changes like ending the home-and-away format and bringing the world cup format backfired heavily as fans, tennis experts and players were not happy.

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Many players like Roger Federer and Lleyton Hewitt were against these changes made. However, players like Rafael Nadal did support these changes saying the tournament is anyways on the downside and these changes will help. Countries like Great Britain and Australia voted against the partnership with Davis Cup and the deal was always controversial from the beginning.

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The ITF issued a statement yesterday saying “The ITF can confirm that its partnership with Kosmos Tennis for Davis Cup is ending. The ITF has ensured financial contingencies are in place and, as the custodian of the competition, will operate the 2023 qualifiers and finals as scheduled, with the Final 8 taking place in Malaga, Spain, this November.”

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Fans criticize Gerard Pique after the deal ended

Gerard Pique

Fans were delighted with the news from ITF and started trolling the former Spanish footballer. On this occasion, few recalled the Swiss Maestro’s predictions long back. Some also added saying there is no role for a footballer in tennis. Few people tweeted mentioning the flaws of the new format and justifying how it was never going to be successful.

They also pointed out that within 5 years, there was a year washed out due to the pandemic. Also, the rest of the years too didn’t make good money. The tournaments often saw empty stands and fewer crowds even after the constant efforts from the Kosmos team. A few people also slammed this former footballer for his previous ill works and relations with singer Shakira.

Initially, the organizers announced that the tournaments are a success however, the numbers didn’t add up. Overall the pundits believe it was a bad investment from the Spaniard. However, since it ended, the ITF will conduct the qualifying stages and finals of this year’s Davis Cup.

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