Stan Wawrinka did not mince his words when criticizing Kosmos and Gerard Piqué, at the origin of the change in the Davis Cup formula in 2019, and the ITF. The group match, the France-Switzerland final phase on Tuesday, was played in front of around… 600 people. What followed was a war of words on X between Wawrinka, certain lovers of the old competition and the former FC Barcelona player.
Now a consultant for RTS, the Swiss Marc Rosset, with 28 Davis Cup selections, did not hide his disappointment from the Team. “It’s the first time in my life that I don’t find myself there, I understand the players who don’t find it there, the spectators who don’t come. He (Wawrinka) is coming back from injury, he is 38 years old, he is trying to get back to his best level, it annoys me to see him in this state. What I’m going to say may shock you because you play for your country. But if you are 20 years old and have few or no selections, it’s still okay. But he won three Grand Slams and the Davis Cup. It’s not the same despite the motivation when entering the field. »
The 52-year-old former champion is also nostalgic for the home-away format (home/away): “Each time when I played away, I liked to provoke the audience who whistled at me, that’s what made me won, you want to make them shut up (…) I like tennis. But finding myself in Manchester, where they let us in through a kind of rotten gate, you don’t know where the door for the press is… The linesmen and the ball boys, it’s ridiculous, it’s of amateurism. We hit rock bottom. Even in a Challenger it’s better organized than that. And I’m a competitor, at 2-0, the match is over. It’s a crappy formula.” It is said.
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