ERSA Pro Stringer Magazine 10 - 2018 prostringer 10 -2018 web | Page 16

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INDUSTRY NEWS
The ITF has announced that Serbia’s Novak
Djokovic and Romania’s Simona Halep have
been named the 2018 ITF World Champions. The
Women’s Doubles World Champions are Barbora
Krejcikova & Katerina Siniakova, while Mick Bryan
& Jack Sock (USA) are the men’s champions.
Japan’s Shingo Kunieda, Netherlands’
Diede de Groot and Australia’s Dylan Alcott
have been announced as the men’s, women’s and
quad winners in the wheelchair division.
Clara Burel from France and Tseng Chun Hsin
(Taipei) were named as junior World Champions.
Amelie Mauresmo has decided against taking over
as captain of France’s Davis Cup team to instead
coach compatriot Lucas Pouille. The accolade
of French Davis Cup Captain goes to Sebastian
Grosjean. Another Frenchman, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga,
has reportedly added Spanish Davis Cup captain
Sergi Bruguera to his team for 2019. Meanwhile,
Grigor Dimitrov has added Andre Agassi to his
team of advisors.
Many WTA stars will begin the season with new
coaching arrangements; Angelique Kerber
has hired 2003 Australian Open finalist Rainer
Schuettler as head coach. Victoria Azarenka
reunites with Wim Fissette.
Elise Mertens will start the 2019 season with
David Taylor in her corner, while another Brit,
Andrew Bettles, steps up to perform as main
coach to Elina Svitolina. Johanna Konta will be
working with Dimitry Zavioloff. Kiki Bertens has
added Elise Tamaela to her coaching team while
Greek Maria Sakkari hires Mark Petchey. Thomas
Drouet will coach 20 year old Russian
Anna Blinkova, and 2013 Wimbledon Champion
Marion Bartoli will make her debut as a coach,
working with 19 year old Lucie Wargnier.
2018 saw many well known players hang up the
racquets for the last time. Amongst those to call it
a career were: Agnieszka Radwanska, Max Mirnyi,
Mikhail Youzhny, Florian Mayer, Gilles Muller, Ju-
lien Benneteau and Tommy Haas.
Former World No.5 and 2015 Roland Garros final-
ist Lucie Safarova has announced her final tour-
nament will be the 2019 Australian Open, while
David Ferrerwill play a select group of events on
his farewell tour.
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Croatia has won this year’s Davis
Cup by BNP Paribas. The team, composed
of Marin Cilic, Borna Coric, Ivan Dodig and
Mate Pavic, was too strong for defending
champions France. Despite a ray of hope
after Saturday’s doubles win and with the
support of a stadium of over 22,000 cheer-
ing
fans, the host nation was not able to defy
the Croats a second Davis Cup title.
LOOKING AHEAD
TO 2019
The previous year’s champion (Croatia),
runner-up (France) and two semi-finalists
automatically qualify (USA
and Spain).
2 wild-cards are given for automatic qualifi-
cation (Argentina and Great Britain).
24 other teams will play a qualifying round
in February (12 will play at home, 12
away).
The 12 losing teams will be relegated to
Group I (to be played later in the year).
12 winning teams will advance to the Davis
Cup finals joining the top 4 from the previ-
ous year as well as the
2 wild-card recipients in an 18-team com-
petition.
The 18 teams will play at the Davis Cup
finals in Madrid.
They will be divided into 6 group of 3 and
play a three-match (2 singles and 1 dou-
bles) best-of-three round robin.
The winner of each group (6 in total), plus
the two best-performing second-placed
teams will advance to the
quarterfinals, then semi-finals then final,
maintaining the same match formats.
2019 will be a year of great changes for
the sport’s flagship men’s team competi-
tion. Known as the ‘World Cup of Tennis’,
the Davis Cup finals will be held at the
Caja Magica in Madrid and will see not 2
but 18 teams in contention for the title.
ERSA PRO STRINGER // ISSUE 9-2018