All of the convicted are men and 14 have been sentenced to a decade of "rigorous imprisonment"
asia4 hours ago
Tomas Berdych has called for the annual battle for the Davis Cup to be spread out over two years, with its final stage cemented in September.
The 28-year-old Czech is a two-time winner of the competition with fellow compatriot Radek Stepanek and they are now gunning for a historic treble this year.
Berdych then is arguably more qualified than most to suggest improvements to the format and he believes the quick-turnaround nature of the event detracts from its importance, while prolonged knockout rounds hampers its momentum.
“It is a competition in which the most countries compete and it has been going for more than 100 years,” the third seed at this week’s Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships said.
“There are not many competitions with a history like that. In one way, I think it’s pretty good, but — on the other hand — if they really want to keep the notion that it’s something unique, they really should listen to the players and see what needs to change.
“No one talks about completely different scenarios or anything like that, but a few, small details could change and help a lot.
“The Davis Cup winners could maybe not play in the first round, which means the World Group could be a little bit smaller.
“The other thing is definitely the dates. It ends up so late and that really makes a difficult season even more so.
“I’ve finished the season twice at the end of November, so that’s extra weeks which you can easily find in between. I also think it would make sense and be really interesting if the Davis Cup was every two years. The players would really like to play in it that way. You have the World Cup in football every four years. We don’t need at least four years, but I think two would be a reasonable time.
“We finished the semi-final, which was in September, I came home and within two days I was receiving calls about what I thought of our opponents in the first round. What is that about? That’s destroying the competition.”
All of the convicted are men and 14 have been sentenced to a decade of "rigorous imprisonment"
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