Tennis | The Davis Cup lost its financier and öky contract just as Finland got into the company of the stars

Strong Over the weekend, the individual sport of tennis showed how well it works as a team sport, when Finland defeated Argentina 3–1 in Espoo’s Metro Arena.

Solution player Emil Ruusuvuori didn’t stop thanking his teammates after nailing the last ball to the court in the decisive singles game.

Before that, a pretty seamless co-op game Harri Heliövaaran with built a cornerstone for victory.

Davis The place in the final tournament of the Cup is a unique achievement for Finland, which has sought varying degrees of success in the Cup since 1928. The wait of almost a hundred years ended in Espoo.

The Davis Cup, which started in 1900, brought a strong team element to tennis among individuals.

The Davis Cup has traditionally been an event where the players do not first inform the organizers of their account numbers, but go to represent their country.

Money has never been the number one thing in Davis Cup, but winning the championship.

The Cup has such a long history and huge traditions that they will not be knocked down by wobbly piles of money or lost euros.

All the superstars of today’s tennis have been able to kiss the handsome trophy. Novak Djokovic took his 2010, Rafael Nadal 2009, 2011 and 2019, Roger Federer 2014 and Andy Murray 2015.

Nadal’s willingness to play for championships alone says a lot about the esteem in which the Davis Cup is held.

American John McEnroe was a true Davis Cup enthusiast when he won the pitcher five times in the 1970s and 80s.

The Davis Cup found its place in the tight competition calendar for more than a hundred years, until there were big talks and promises of even bigger bills.

FC Barcelona former football player Gerard Pique slapped a piece of paper on the desk of the International Tennis Federation that was too tempting to be true.

Piqué, through his financial company Kosmos, promised a 25-year contract and three billion euros in cash.

Piqué had one condition. He wanted to renew the entire format of the event.

The rush of reviews started as soon as home matches were taken away from the countries and the Cup’s final tournament was moved to four cities. The five match format was shortened to three matches.

What worked in football didn’t work in tennis.

Money blinded tennis’ umbrella organization, but sunglasses are no longer needed. Euros no longer dazzle.

Kosmos has not paid last year’s prize money and the contract has been terminated. The common sky between Kosmos and the ITF lasted just under five years.

Finland arranged the surprise of all time, first time became one of the big ones, but so far it is not even known where to play.

There are 16 countries in the final tournament – Finland is one of them. The countries are divided into four initial groups, from which the first and second in the groups continue to the final culmination in Malaga.

Four block cities are still open. It is possible that a question mark will appear after Malaga as well.

What about the money?

CEO of the Tennis Association Teemu Purho live in the belief that the same amount of money would be distributed this year as had to be paid in the tournament won by Canada last year.

“We had the vice president of the ITF as a guest at the national match Bernard Giudicelliwho assured us that we will go at the same level as last year,” Purho tells HS.

Then we are talking about large sums. The total pot for the final tournament was supposed to be 15 million dollars, where just reaching the group stage would generate more than 500,000 euros to be distributed to the players of each country. The union would also get about half of that.

“We have not been informed of the money, nor what the financial situation is,” Purho continues, but sees other values ​​in the final tournament venue.

“We evaluate the whole through the sport and as a marketing act. Tennis is on the rise and on a growth curve.”

Espoo The Davis Cup weekend was also a breakthrough for the spectators.

Saturday’s atmosphere could have been mistaken for a samba carnival if you hadn’t known you were at a tennis event. Sunday’s decisive moments did not differ from Saturday’s.

The metro arena attracted a total of around 9,500 spectators over the two days. Only Jarkko Nieminen Final night, i.e. the closing event of the career in 2015 with Roger Federer, got the tennis people moving more.

13,000 spectators came to the Pasila arena for their teams.

When the cities of the upcoming final tournament are undecided, and now wouldn’t it be a good place to organize the games in Espoo’s Metro Arena?

“We asked for the tournament material, but we didn’t go to get the event.”

Purho hopes that the city of Espoo will be inspired to go along. This way, the final tournament could be played in Finland sometime in the future.

The national basketball team, or Susijengi, has taken Metro-arena home, and so has the tennis team.

It’s not cheap to organize games, when the match against Argentina just now turned out to be victorious.

The numbers from last year’s Belgium game looked almost like a zero result and the New Zealand game was a loss.

“This event will fix previous matches.”

The Davis Cup final tournament groups will be played from the 12th to the 17th. September The climax of the eight teams will be played on the 21st-26th. November in Malaga, Spain.