Madrid to host Davis Cup finals week, ITF announces

The revamped event will be staged at the Caja Magica

(Getty)

The inaugural Davis Cup finals week will be hosted in Madrid, organisers have announced.

The revamped event, which pits 18 teams against one another and takes place next November, will be staged at the Caja Magica – the same venue which earlier this year held the Madrid Masters.

International Tennis Federation president David Haggerty said: "We are delighted to be bringing the 2019 Davis Cup by BNP Paribas finals to Madrid. The city is a fitting location to stage the highest quality tennis and great entertainment for thousands of fans from all over the world.

"We look forward to working with the city to realise our ambitions of elevating the Davis Cup to a new level."

Madrid saw off competition from Lille to host the finals week and will also stage the event in 2020, with the ITF keen to encourage the top players to take part by staging it close to the venue for the preceding week's ATP Finals at London's O2 Arena.

Finding a venue with sufficient indoor courts in Europe severely reduced the possible options. The Caja Magica has three indoor courts with capacity for 20,000 spectators while there are further indoor courts that could be used for practice.

The teams will be split into six groups of three, with the group winners and the two best second-placed teams qualifying for the knockout stages.

Six teams have already been confirmed, with this year's semi-finalists France, Croatia, USA and Spain being joined by wild cards Great Britain and Argentina. The 12 winners of February's qualifying round will fill the remaining slots.

Defending champions France will face Croatia in November in the final of the last edition of the traditional competition.

Additional reporting by PA