MADRID, Nov. 18 (Xinhua) -- The new-look Davis Cup tennis tournament opens here on Monday, offering tennis fans six days of intense competition.
The format for this year's event has been completely changed from a knockout tournament played over several weekends in the year, to bringing 18 nations together to play over one week.
The 18 countries are divided into six groups of three, with ties consisting of two best-of-three sets singles matches, and a doubles match played on a hard-court surface at Madrid's 'Caja Magica'.
The group winners and the two best runners-up will then progress into the quarterfinals, which will be played on Friday, with the semifinals played on Saturday and the final on Sunday, November 24.
A controversial decision was to appoint FC Barcelona and former Spanish international footballer Gerard Pique as tournament director. While this has not been well received by everyone, with Australia captain Lleyton Hewitt commenting that he wouldn't try to redesign the format of football's UEFA Champions League, others such as Britain's Andy Murray have urged players and fans to give the new format a chance.
Meanwhile, Pique is optimistic of success. "I want them to have the best week of their lives. I want the Davis Cup to be a party around tennis, not just tennis. We have a deal with Sony and there are going to be different artists performing there that will provide other entertainment which is going to help make the Davis Cup unique."
"Obviously football is the biggest sport but tennis and basketball probably share second position in Spain," said Pique on the official David Cup website, adding that several of his big-name Barcelona team-mates were tennis fans.
"Lionel Messi likes tennis a lot and Ivan Rakitic is another. They follow their countries in the Davis Cup. At the Caja Magica you can always see players from Real and Atletico Madrid watching," he commented.
