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Pedro Luis Alonso
Malaga
Monday, 27 November 2023
Malaga will once again host the World Cup of Tennis after it was confirmed the Davis Cup finals will be played in the city for a third year in 2024.
The tournament committee, meeting last week in Malaga, opted for a third year following the success of last year's event and this year's, where thousands of people packed into the Martín Carpena arena to watch world-class tennis. The stadium, which seats 10,000 people, was close to full capacity multiple times last week as six days of intense matches finished with Italy lifting the Davis Cup trophy for the first time in 47 years on Sunday 26 November.
The International Tennis Federation (ITF) has faced criticism over the event's current format where matches were shortened from best of five sets to best of three, and one city selected to host all final eight games, instead of the previous home-and-away set-up.
The Davis Cup committee, which confirmed Malaga as the host city for a third year, is chaired by former Australian player Mark Woodforde, and is made up of a dozen members (no more than one per country) - there are no Spaniards in this mix.
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Among the committee members are German Dietloff Von Arnim, Canadian Jennifer Bishop, Novak Djokovic's brother Goran Djokovic, Egyptian Ismail El Shafei, American Patrick Galbraith, French Bernard Giudicelli, Belgian Gijs Kooken, Brit Scott Lloyd, Italian Sergio Palmieri, Japanese Minoru Ueda, Brasilian Rafael Westrupp and Ukrainian Evgeniy Zukin.
The presence of world number one Novak Djokovic attracted a media frenzy with 267 accredited journalists from 19 countries attending the tournament. It contributed to the success of this year's Davis Cup, which the committee says has been greater than 2022. The tournament is now organised by Tennium after Kosmos' 25-year contract was terminated after just five years.
Six million euros was invested in this year's tournament, with the Junta pointing out that the 2023 Davis Cup is worth 14 times that investment. According to the Junta de Andalucía, one of the main supporters of Malaga's bid to host the Davis Cup Final 8, every one million invested gives back a return of 14 million - four million as direct profit and 10 million from brand awareness. Andalucía will again be the home for the World Cup of tennis - in the women's as well next year - as Seville prepares to host the Billie Jean King Cup again in 2024 after the success of this year's.
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