London, Jun 22 (IANS): Retired tennis player David Ferrer was on Tuesday appointed tournament director of the Davis Cup Finals.
The 40-year-old, who has had a 16-year involvement with the competition, will replace Albert Costa, who had held the position since 2019. Former world No. 3 Ferrer has played 20 Davis Cup ties for Spain, lifting the trophy on three occasions.
"I'm very excited about joining the project. The Davis Cup is a unique competition. As a player, it is one of the tournaments that you always want to play because of what it means," said Ferrer.
"You compete as a team, you play for your country, you spend a week with your teammates and the crowd atmosphere is unbelievable," he added.
Sixteen teams will participate in this year's finals group stage, to be held from September 13-18 in the cities of Bologna, Glasgow, Hamburg and Valencia in Spain.
The 16 countries participating in the finals group stage are Australia, Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Kazakhstan, Korea Republic, Netherlands, Serbia, Spain, Sweden and the United States.
The top two teams from each venue will automatically qualify for the final eight in Malaga from November 22-27.