No room for two team events in two months, says Nadal

[January 13, 2020]    (Reuters) - World number one Rafa Nadal has called on tennis administrators to create one "big world team cup competition" instead of confusing fans by staging the ATP Cup and Davis Cup within two months of each other.

Spain's Rafael Nadal during his Final singles match against Serbia's Novak Djokovic REUTERS/Ciro De Luca

Nadal won the International Tennis Federation's revamped Davis Cup competition with Spain in November and lost Sunday's final of the inaugural ATP Cup to Novak Djokovic's Serbia.

"I think it's a great competition but ... I can't change my mind that two world cups (within two months) is not real," Nadal told reporters.

"We need to find a way to fix it and we need to find a way to make a big deal with ITF and ATP to create a big world team cup competition, not two world cups.

"I think that's a confusion for the spectators, and we need to be clear in our sport."

Other top players, including Djokovic, have previously backed the merger of the two team events.

(Reporting by Hardik Vyas in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Rutherford)

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