Finland will not be able to play the Davis Cup tennis final stage tournament on its home court. The tournaments are played in Italy, Spain, Great Britain and China.
Matti Lehtisaari,
Janne Karinkanta,
STT Sports
Finnish tennis fans do not get to cheer Emil Ruusuvuorta and partners on home court in the men’s Davis Cup finals. The international tennis federation ITF chose Italy’s Bologna, Spain’s Valencia, Britain’s Manchester and China’s Zhuhai as the competition venues for the group games.
Finland cleared its way to the final stage of the top 16 by defeating Portugal in Turku earlier in the winter.
So now four competition venues were chosen, each of which will play a group of four countries. The top two from each of these groups advance to the top eight final tournament, which will be played in Malaga, just like last year.
The decision was disappointing for Finland. The Tennis Association had applied for a tournament to be played next fall to be organized in Espoo.
– We are disappointed. We worked quite a lot to be able to meet the wishes of the International Tennis Federation and bring this event to Finland. We saw that we would have had great potential and at least the matches in Finland would have been sold out, CEO of Tennisliito Teemu Purho told.
According to information received by Finland, the last choice was made between Finland and China.
– We negotiated closely and believed that we were strong, Purho stated.
It has been surprising that China is playing, even though China doesn’t even have a team in the group stage. China is far behind Finland in the Davis Cup ranking in 62nd place. Finland is in 10th place in the ranking.
– It was a surprise and exceptional that the ITF reached such a solution. The alternative would have been to play in a country where the home team would also participate, Purho pointed out.
The strong boom of the Finnish Davis Cup team was ignored
The Finnish tennis players filled the stands against Portugal at the beginning of February in Turku. Last fall, thousands of Finnish tennis fans traveled to support Finland in the Davis Cup final played in Malaga.
However, the boom built around the Finnish Davis Cup team did not influence the decision-making process. According to Teemu Purho, the International Tennis Federation justified the choice of China as the venue in three different ways.
– Our hall would not have been used in the way we would have liked. Of course, I would have been able to train just fine and the situation would not have affected the game or training days, Purho said.
Geography and economic reasons also played a role in choosing the venue.
– According to the ITF, the Davis Cup was wanted outside of Europe. China was chosen as the place where they wanted to take the tournament. The third thing was definitely the economy. China’s economy as a whole was better than ours, Purho estimated.
So did money talk in this solution?
– I’m not going to take a position on that, Purho acknowledged briefly.
Now that there will be no games in Espoo next fall, it is hoped that the next venue in Finland will be located in Europe.
– We wish we would play in Europe, because we want Finnish fans there, Purho stated.
The Davis Cup groups will be drawn next Tuesday. The group stage will be played between the 10th and the 15th. September