Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner would like to see some changes to the Davis Cup

By Canadian Press on November 17, 2025.

Even if the Davis Cup Final 8 that begins Tuesday in Bologna, Italy, is the sixth edition of the team competition to have the champion decided at a neutral site, there are those who would prefer to see some more changes.

Perhaps go back to home-and-away matchups all the way through.

And maybe shift it from an annual contest to something less frequent.

“They got to do something (with) this event, because I think playing every year, I mean — it is not as good as it might be if you’re playing every two or three years,” said No. 1-ranked Carlos Alcaraz, the six-time Grand Slam champion who is coming off a runner-up finish to Jannik Sinner at the ATP Finals in Turin on Sunday. “I think if the tournament is played, like, every two years or every three years, the players, the commitment of the players, it’s going to be even more because it’s unique, it’s different. You’re not able to play every year.”

Alcaraz will lead Spain against the No. 4-seeded Czech Republic in the quarterfinals on Thursday as he tries to win the Davis Cup for the first time. Last year, Alcaraz was part of the squad that was eliminated in the opening round of the Final 8 at home in Malaga, where Rafael Nadal played the final match of his storied career before retiring.

“I really want to win the Davis Cup one day,” the 22-year-old Alcaraz said, “because for me, it’s a really important, important tournament.”

Sinner led Italy to two consecutive championships in 2023 and 2024, but he decided to sit out the Davis Cup this time around. So did his countryman, Lorenzo Musetti, who also participated in the ATP Finals last week.

Sinner, who won two of his four Grand Slam titles this season and was the runner-up to Alcaraz at the other two majors in 2025, joined his rival in advocating for switching things up with the Davis Cup.

Maybe, Sinner suggested, it could be spread out over two years, including staging the semifinals early in the second season of the cycle and the final at the end of that season.

That, he surmised, would make it “even bigger.”

“I never, unfortunately, played the Davis Cup, the ‘real’ Davis Cup, where it’s … playing in Argentina or in Brazil, where you have the whole stadium … for the other team,” Sinner said. “I think this is Davis Cup, you know?”

Count Pierre-Hugues Herbert, a 34-year-old Frenchman who helped his country win the Davis Cup before a home crowd at Lille in 2017, was another player who would like to see each of the closing rounds be played at one of the nations involved.

“The new format has been a bit challenging for us in France, I think, especially for me,” said Herbert, who owns a career Grand Slam in doubles, “because I felt like something a bit died in this competition.”

This week’s finals will begin with No. 3 seed France taking on Belgium on Tuesday. Then No. 1 Italy — whose roster includes Flavio Cobolli, Lorenzo Sonego and 2021 Wimbledon finalist Matteo Berrettini — will face Austria on Wednesday, before the last two quarterfinals are held on Thursday, including No. 2 Germany and Alexander Zverev against Argentina.

One semifinal will be played on Friday, and the other on Saturday, before the champion is determined on Sunday.

Alcaraz and Spain have a tough task, going up against a Czech team that includes a pair of top-20 players in Jiri Lehecka and Jakub Mensik and eliminated the United States in the qualifying round in September.

“Winning against them,” said Mensik, a 20-year-old who is the youngest player at the Final 8, “brings us a lot of confidence into the Final 8.”

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AP Sports Writer Andrew Dampf contributed to this report.

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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis

Howard Fendrich, The Associated Press

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