Rafael Nadal has repeated his long-standing call for changes to the demanding and time-consuming Davis Cup tennis format, speaking out before starting his campaign at the Indian Wells tournament in California.
The 14-time grand slam winner, seeded fifth at the season's first ATP Masters 1000 event, appears to favour proposals circulating from meetings this week to cut the competition from three days to two, and make matches best of three sets instead of five.
"The ITF (International Tennis Federation) need to make changes, I said a lot of years ago. And still now there is a new president and new staff that they are trying to make new things, and that's always good," the 30-year-old Spaniard said on Friday.
"We cannot have a Davis Cup champion every year that devaluate the competition."
The recent first round was a disappointment for the ITF, with Serbian world No.2 Novak Djokovic the only participating player from the top 10.
"If the top players are not playing very often, then you are making something not good - you need to change. But the ITF always thinks on the small picture," Nadal added.
He called the competition "a beautiful competition, a very emotional competition".
He also proposed a massive lengthening of the format, producing a winner only every three years.
"I don't mean one-year Davis Cup, one year no Davis Cup. I mean, for example, two ties per year. That will be something reasonable and players will be very motivated to play Davis Cup."
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