Italian Davis Cup captain Filippo Volandri wants tennis bosses to rethink the team tournament rules after Jannik Sinner decided not to represent his country next year. The world No. 2 helped Italy win the World Cup of men’s tennis in 2023 and 2024, but he will not be part of the team at next month’s Davis Cup Finals, instead opting to start his off-season a week earlier.
Sinner has faced backlash for his decision, but Volandri understands why the four-time Major champion can’t join the squad. Now, he wants a drastic change in the schedule to give the Davis Cup more value and provide extra opportunities for top players to represent their countries.
Every year, the Davis Cup Finals are held in the last week of the season – two weeks after the last regular ATP tournaments of the year, and the week after the ATP Finals. The ‘Final 8’ countries are determined based on qualifier ties that take place earlier in the year.
This year, players of teams who reach the Davis Cup Finals final will contest their last matches of the season on November 23. The 2026 ATP season starts back up on January 2, giving little time to take a proper break and begin pre-season training.
The Davis Cup is also not an ATP-sanctioned event, so the ATP has little room to adjust its own tournaments to accommodate the competition.
But Volandri believes the current schedule is unsustainable and wants the team tournament to be given a new spot in the calendar – and to be staged less frequently.
“I believe it shouldn’t necessarily be played every year. And above all, it needs a better placement: it can’t be held in the last week of the season, when everyone is exhausted,” the Italian captain told Gazzetta.
“If we consider it important, we need to give it the place it deserves. The problem is that it’s an ITF event on an ATP calendar that leaves no other space.”
This year, Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev will be in Bologna to represent their countries at the Davis Cup Finals. But Volandri argued that wasn’t always the case, as the calendar means that top players are often forced to decide between representing their countries or having a longer off-season.
He added: “It happens to all players, even the very best. Zverev hasn’t played it for years, nor [Roger] Federer or [Rafael] Nadal. There are seasons that lead you to arrive at certain moments in different physical and mental conditions. We’re still at the end of the season, and every year is different.”
When Sinner shared his decision not to represent Italy this year, he told Sky Sports Italy: “I’ve won the Davis Cup twice. My team and I made this decision because the end of the season is very long, and I need an extra week off to start training earlier.
“The goal is to be in top shape for Australia. Over the last two years, I haven’t been at my best due to a lack of time, so we decided this was the right move.”
This year, the Billie Jean King Cup Finals – essentially the World Cup of women’s tennis – was moved from the last week of the season to mid-September. The Finals were staged in Shenzhen, shortly after the US Open and before the rest of the Asian swing got underway.
The decision paid off. Top-10 players Jessica Pegula, Jasmine Paolini and Elena Rybakina were among those who competed in the team competition before heading to their next WTA Tour event in Beijing. Italy successfully defended the title they won in 2024.