Greg Rusedski, the former British No.1, has hit out at the proposed changes to the Davis Cup.
Tennis associations across the world on Thursday voted for a new World Cup-style week-long tournament to be played at the end of the season, bringing an end to the traditional home and away format spread throughout the year.
The new tournament, funded by an investment group led by Barcelona's former Spain international Gerard Pique, will begin in November 2019.
Eighteen countries will be divided into six groups with each qualifying round consisting of three matches – two singles and one doubles – of best-of-three sets.
The top teams from each group and the two highest-scoring runners-up will play the quarter-finals on the Friday, with the semi-finals on Saturday and the final held on Sunday.
The Lawn Tennis Association, the governing body of British tennis, voted against the revamp and Rusedski, who was a stalwart of Great Britain's Davis Cup team for 12 years, fears it will be a turn-off for players and fans alike.
"There needed to be changes but I'm not a fan of what they've proposed," said Rusedski.
"Guys are always complaining they are tired at the end of the year. So where is it put? Slap bang right after the ATP Finals.
"Rafael Nadal says he wants to shut up shop, Roger Federer says he needs to go on holiday, and they're going to play five matches back-to-back in a week, the day after the end-of-season championships?
"So the calendar-positioning of it doesn't make any sense whatsoever. There's a lot of things they haven't consulted the players about. The first year they might play but will they play in two, three, four years? I'd be very surprised.
"I know Novak Djokovic and Nadal have been positive about it but Pique is their friend.
"The investment is fantastic news. But is the concept right? I'm not so sure. I'll miss the home and away ties. You win the Davis Cup at home, or on the road. You'll lose that environment.
"Are people going to travel to watch for one week in November? Are players going to play? Those are the huge question marks. It's not really the Davis Cup. It's become a week-long thing now."
Great Britain are in Davis Cup action in Glasgow next month, in a World Group play-off against Uzbekistan which has now been rendered virtually meaningless.
"Does that actually matter now?" added Rusedski. "With this new format it's just become an exhibition now.
"Looking at all these proposals there's no clarity. If the players and people in the sport don't fully understand it how can it be voted to be agreed upon.
"That's what dumbfounds me. What have you actually agreed to?"
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here