Australia the last stand for Fed Cup format

Australia will host the final of the last Fed Cup played under the current format after organisers opted for a radical revamp.

Australia’s World No 1 Ashleigh Barty. Picture: David Caird

Australia will host the final of the last Fed Cup to be played under the current format after organisers opted to revamp the premier women’s team competition.

The International Tennis Federation is adopting a similar format to the reshaped Davis Cup for the Fed Cup from next year.

The ITF announced in London that the new format “World Cup of Tennis” Fed Cup finals will be held on clay in Budapest in April over six days for the next three years.

A dozen teams will compete for $25.7 million in prize money, 66 per cent of which will go to players and the remainder to their national federations.

It will be the largest and richest annual competition in women’s team sport.

Tour legend Billie Jean King is among the proponents.

“These reforms are historic as they reflect the ITF’s commitment to unlocking the Fed Cup’s huge potential, hosting a competition with prize money deserving of the world’s best women’s tennis teams and players,” she said.

The Australia team led by world No 1 Ash Barty and their French rivals in November’s final Fed Cup final, which will be played in Perth, automatically qualify for next year’s “World Cup” event.

Eight qualifying ties in February will decide other finalists.

As the hosts, Hungary will automatically qualify and an ­additional wildcard will be awarded.

Four groups of three teams will play in a round-robin format before knockout semi-finals and ­finals. It is a return to a format held for more than three decades from 1963, when the Federation Cup, as it was then known, was held in a different city each year.

But as with last year’s overhaul of the Davis Cup, this revamp has also polarised tennis. Players have blasted a lack of consultation.

Fed Cup captain Alicia Molik made clear Australia’s preference for the traditional format when quizzed after Barty led Australia into the final for the first time in 26 years after beating Belarus in a semi-final in Brisbane in April.

Australia says the teams events were ideal formats to inspire younger generations.

“It has come up a lot in conversations and the first thing that comes to mind is how great it is that we play home ties,” Molik told The Australian. “We make sure we introduce a lot of juniors (to the camps) and that allows them to see their idols and feel like they are within touch. The thing we would miss is that it is a really important pointer to our future.

French veteran Alize Cornet is among those upset with the decision. “Good job on killing the competition just as they did with the Davis Cup and nobody even bothered to ask the opinion of the players. Very disappointing,” she wrote on social media.

ITF president David Haggerty said the body had listened to stakeholders including players.

He said the new format would “create a festival of tennis that elevates this flagship women’s team competition to a new level, yet remains loyal to the historic core of the Fed Cup”.