HAMBURG – Gerard Piqué’s vision for changing the Davis Cup ‘wasn’t bad,’ says the man who was in charge of the 2023 and 2024 editions of the century-old tournament.
“Piqué‘s vision wasn’t bad. The old Davis Cup format wasn’t working”, Kristoff Puelinckx told CLAY during an interview at the Hamburg tournament, which he owns.
Although he is behind this and other tournaments with his company Tennium, Puelinckx speaks calmly and with a strategic eye. He is not just watching the German ATP 500: from his role as CEO and founder of the company, he has the world tennis map in his head.
In just a few years, his ‘boutique agency’ has become a major player on the professional circuit. With tournaments in Buenos Aires, Antwerp, Nice, Hamburg and Barcelona, and agreements with the ATP, WTA and ITF, Tennium occupies a unique position: it talks to all the players on the board, even when they don’t usually talk to each other.
The one-on-one chat with the Belgian takes place a few metres from the centre court, but focuses more on the corridors of power than on what happens on the court. Backed by his business experience in Dubai, Puelinckx paints a future scenario in which Asia and, above all, the Middle East will gain increasing weight in a professional calendar that is shrinking.
The businessman also warns of the need to protect historic venues such as South America, where, beyond the numbers, there is culture, talent and tradition. He defends the innovation introduced by Kosmos in the Davis Cup, while acknowledging its limitations. And, along the way, he slips in some criticism of the press.
Interview with Kristoff Puelinckx
– How do you imagine the ATP calendar in 10 years’ time? With more events in Asia and the Middle East?
– Yes. And with fewer tournaments. Players want to play less, they want to be protected more, so I think the ATP 250 will be cut back and maybe some 500s. Geographically, it’s a very good question, because there are different interests at play. There is the power of money, which is significant in the Middle East, and there is interest in investing it in sport. You see the same thing in Asia. This is a major challenge for Europe, where there is a lot of tennis and also money, but not at these levels. There is concern, but at least one area where we are putting a lot of effort and lobbying is South America, where, from a purely financial point of view, it is difficult but, from a sporting point of view, it is very good because of the number of tennis players it has. And now there is Fonseca in Brazil. All these things help. On the other hand, the fact that people with ambition and investment are coming into tennis is positive because it puts pressure on us all to raise the bar, and that’s a good thing.
– What do you think is the Saudis’ goal in their strong foray into tennis?
– They are transforming their economy, which is purely based on oil, into one that invests in various other sectors, such as sport. They want to promote development in their own country, which is also admirable, because at the end of the day they are investing in their own country. They have already made major investments in football and their league is becoming increasingly powerful, so now they are looking at other sports.
– The other unknown is the United States. What will happen there?
– That’s a good question because the number of tournaments has been declining. But all this is happening in a context where there will be fewer tournaments in general. I think there will be a lot of competition between cities and countries to attract events. This is good news for us as operators because we will have more opportunities to take our tournaments here and there. But we’ll have to see where it ends up.
– Is it true that Buenos Aires refuses to play on hard courts, as Catalina Fillol, director of Santiago de Chile, told CLAY? And that’s why it doesn’t attract as much as it could?
– That has nothing to do with it. Clay is very important for the tour. If it weren’t, they would have already removed it or reduced it, but these are also trends that come and go. Some players prefer hard courts, others prefer clay. What the tour wants is to have a balanced calendar. I don’t think they will continue to reduce the number of clay court tournaments, because they will end up killing them. And, again, a large part of tennis is played on that surface.
– If you had to imagine a fifth Grand Slam, where would you locate it?
– I seriously doubt there will be a fifth, because the four that exist would protect their position quite well, but if there were, I think it would have to be in a city where tennis is alive. I don’t see it in the Middle East; I think they’re just getting started. Everyone says Indian Wells would be the ideal fifth Slam because of its facilities, its tennis tradition, the quality of the event. But Rome would also be a great place for a Grand Slam. Madrid isn’t bad either, although I don’t know if it has the infrastructure. But I don’t think it’s really a relevant discussion today.
– What is your opinion of Andrea Gaudenzi’s leadership of the ATP?
– We voted for him and we are fans of Andrea. He has done a great job and has a very clear vision: he wants to further unify the world of tennis, raise the quality of the product and create a more premium experience for fans and customers. He’s also a communicative man who listens to both the tournaments and the players. Player compensation has gone up a lot in recent years, which puts pressure on us tournaments, but in the end it’s also good for us because it forces us all to raise the quality of the product, improve the events and work harder on the financials. This ATP in Hamburg is a good example: we took it over last year and turned it around completely. It offered a much more basic experience, both in the fan zone and in the VIP hospitality area, which used to be just the club bar.
– What lessons can be learned from the Davis Cup affair and Kosmos, Piqué’s company?
– Piqué‘s vision wasn’t bad. The old Davis Cup format wasn’t working. It’s fine for the country that’s in the final, but the rest of the tennis world was losing interest. And for the players, the home and away format was very complicated, although people are nostalgic and would like to see a Davis Cup final in Argentina again, for example. But I think the innovation that Kosmos brought was good: the Final 8 is a format that works very well and the top ten players are playing it. Then there were problems with the execution and the relationship with the ITF, but I won’t go into that.
– But it could have been better, couldn’t it? Sometimes there were very few people in the stadiums.
– Journalists love to say that, but that was years ago. We did the Davis Cup in the last two years, with the final in Malaga, and it was full every day. Last year, a Belgian journalist published a photo of an empty stadium when the tournament hadn’t even started. So sometimes there’s a bit of bad blood from the press. People remember the bad stuff, but if you look at the last two or three years, it was a great success. And Malaga was packed.
– What are Tennium’s plans for this year and next?
– There is a growth plan in Europe, South America and the Middle East. It could be in Dubai, where I had a company, or in other countries. In these three regions, the plan is to continue buying licences, operating tournaments and taking on newmanagement contracts.
– Was there any project you undertook in the world of tennis that didn’t see the light of day?
– Yes. We have been working on several opportunities in Africa for some time, which have not yet materialised, but I am confident that they will come to fruition sooner or later. But it is complicated because some African countries are more suitable for this type of event than others, and it is a long process. It is an example of something where I don’t know if we have failed, but at least it is taking longer than we would have liked.
– Is there room for innovation in a sport as traditional as tennis?
– It depends on how you look at it. It’s like football, where you can innovate, but at the end of the day, a match is 90 minutes. In tennis, technology has been introduced for line calling and player support has been greatly improved, with better medical monitoring and analytical tools. But for me, innovation is also off the court. The fan experience is very different: before, people came to watch tennis and went home. Now they spend almost as much time in the fan zone and hospitality areas as they do on the court. There is a lot of opportunity to innovate in the overall experience of the sport. But the sport itself, well, we’re not going to change and start playing tennis with ping-pong paddles, are we?
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