Fed Cup gets 12-nation Finals in Budapest

Ashleigh Barty (right) and Samantha Stosur of Australia celebrate following their third round doubles victory of the Fed Cup semifinal against Belarus (AFP)

The Fed Cup's existing format will be scrapped next year when a 12-nation Finals week will be staged in Budapest in April, the International Tennis Federation confirmed on Thursday.
The move follows a revamp of the men's Davis Cup which will culminate in an 18-nation event in Madrid in November.
At a news conference held at Queen's Club it was confirmed that Budapest's Laszlo Papp Sports Arena would host the women's team event until 2022.  
There will be an $18 million prize fund for the Finals with $12 million for players and the rest for national associations, the ITF said.
Four nations, this year's finalists France and Australia, hosts Hungary and one wildcard, will be exempted through to the Finals with the other eight coming through playoffs in February.
ITF president David Haggerty said it would create a "festival of tennis".
The move is likely to divide opinion, as the Davis Cup changes did, with former world number one Simona Halep saying this week that she would not be interested in playing if the "home and away" ties were scrapped.
However, the fact the Finals will be staged in April on clay should suit players' calendars with the European claycourt season about to get into full swing.
The move will also suit nations who have found themselves unable to break into the eight-nation World Group. Twenty nations will now effectively be playing at the elite level of the competition every year.
From 2020 the 12 nations in the Finals will play in a round-robin format, with four groups of three teams, followed by semifinals and a final.
The two finalists will be guaranteed a place in the following year's Finals, while the nations finishing third to 10th will contest the following year's qualifiers.
Matches will consist of two singles and one doubles.