Djokovic leads calls for ATP Cup, Davis Cup to merge

Serbian superstar vak Djokovic said Thursday re was point in having two men's team tennis competitions and suggested new ATP Cup should merge with Davis Cup. ATP Cup is about to kick off its inaugural edition, replacing a number of previous Australian Open warm-up tournaments with new round-robin competition. It comes six weeks after revamped Davis Cup, which also has countries playing each or in a round-robin format, was held in Madrid. Canadian Denis Shapovalov suggested earlier Thursday that two events -- one run by men's tour, Association of Tennis Professionals, and or by International Tennis Federation -- should combine.

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Djokovic leads calls for ATP Cup, Davis Cup to merge

"It's a really similar event and it's literally back-to-back from or one, so it's a little bit of a weird sensation coming from what felt like world championships coming to play ar world championship," Shapovalov said.

"So for me I don't see why y, ATP and ITF can't combine, can't join, can't come to some agreement and make just one, really unique and special tournament for everyone."

When asked about Canadian's comments, Djokovic, who is on ATP players' council, agreed.

"We need to have one Super World Cup event, whatever you want to call it," he said.

"That's t going to happen next year as well. But if two sides, ITF, Davis Cup, and ATP get toger very quickly, it can happen possibly for 2022.

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"I hope it will happen because it's kind of hard to get top players to commit to play both events, Davis Cup and ATP Cup.

"And it's six weeks apart, so y're t really helping each or in terms of marketing, in terms of value of event." Djokovic's concerns were shared by France's Nicolas Mahut, who said having two men's team competitions was "too much".

"Obviously, we don't need two competitions same way. Two team competitions is too much," he said.

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Djokovic does t rmally play in Australian before year's first Grand Slam in Melbourne, but he will use ATP Cup to prepare for his attempt to win an eighth Australian Open crown. " Australian Open courts, Melbourne Park was always very suitable to my game, and I can't wait to go back re," he said. "Obviously, that's probably my most successful court in my career, in my life, so I love playing re." Djokovic's first match in ATP Cup will be against South Africa's Kevin Anderson on Saturday. 

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