British great Tim Henman is proposing the introduction of a blockbuster new World Cup of tennis featuring the game’s premier men’s and women’s players.
Unsure if the new ATP Cup and revamped Davis Cup can co-exist on an already-congested calendar, Henman is calling for the sport’s chiefs to unite for the sake of tennis.
The four-time Wimbledon semi-finalist would like to see the ATP Cup and Davis Cup merge and believes a World Cup involving women would be a big hit with fans.
The Hopman Cup mixed teams’ event in Perth, where all-time greats Roger Federer and Serena Williams squared off in the last edition before it was scrapped this year, was hugely popular.
Henman believes it’s time to make room on the calendar for another mixed event that could possibly run over two weeks grand slam style.
“That’s the way you grab the attention of the global sports fan,” Henman told AAP from London.
“Have an event like that with men and women, all the nations playing in one place. I think that has enormous potential.”
Andy Murray hand-picked Henman to be Great Britain’s captain for the inaugural ATP Cup in Australia next month.
Henman is honoured and can’t wait for the event to get underway across Sydney, Brisbane and Perth on January 3, but has reservations about its long-term viability alongside the Davis Cup.
Asked if the ATP Cup, Davis Cup and Laver Cup could all co-exist, Henman said: “I think in an ideal world not”.
“I was a big fan of Davis Cup. I played for many years. I was interested to watch it last month. I’m interested to see how the ATP Cup works.
“It’s got a great player field, it’s in a great country in the lead-up to the Australian Open. It’s got a lot of things going for it.
“The one message, if I had one, is we need to unite our sport and (having) these similar types of events all part of the calendar is challenging.
“So certainly the ATP Cup and Davis Cup, I think, moving forward if they could unite and you could have women there as well and have a World Cup of tennis, that would be very interesting to be a part of.
“We’re not there yet. Davis Cup, there’ll be a lot of analysis of how that (week-long) event went (in Madrid).
“I’m massively excited about the ATP Cup next year.”
Tennis is the only major sport not to have a World Cup, with soccer, cricket in two formats, rugby, rugby league, golf, basketball and netball all boasting regular global showpieces.