(Reuters) - Eighteen nations will gather in Madrid's La Caja Magica on Monday as the men's tennis season culminates with a revamped Davis Cup format dreamt up by a man who earns his living playing soccer for Barcelona. The week-long soccer World Cup-style Davis Cup Finals will be the biggest shake-up the 119-year-old team event has ever had and is being bankrolled by Barca defender Gerard Pique's investment firm Kosmos to the tune of $3 billion over 25 years. It has not been smooth sailing for the International Tennis Federation (ITF) since it announced the radical revamp with some accusing the organization of selling the soul of a competition loved by tennis diehards, but which had slowly lost its luster. There is also the small matter of the ATP Cup -- seen as a rival competition -- launching in January.

Source: International New York Times November 17, 2019 13:18 UTC