Sweden to appeal over Davis Cup seedings
Sun 19 October, 2003 14:16 BST
STOCKHOLM, Oct 19 (Reuters) - Sweden will appeal to the International Tennis Federation (ITF) after the country was left out of next year's Davis Cup seedings, the Swedish federation's chairman Jan Carlzon said on Sunday.
"We will file an appeal to the ITF next week where we'll ask for the seeding and the draw to be re-done," he told the Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet on Sunday.
The Netherlands were handed the eighth and last seeding by the ITF in September and then drawn against Canada. Lacking a seeding Sweden were drawn against top seeds Australia who beat them 5-0 in the quarter-finals earlier this year.
"I have an unpleasant feeling that the ITF are counting the money rather than merits," Carlzon added. "The Davis Cup is incredibly popular in Holland, which means big television revenues. Unfortunately that's not the case for Sweden."
The ITF seedings are based on players' rankings and on a rolling four-year period that adjusts after each Davis Cup round with recent performance weighted more heavily.
With two recent quarter-finals Sweden have been significantly stronger in the Davis Cup than the Netherlands but but the Dutch have higher-ranked players.
"This could have serious consequenses for us in years to come. If we should lose to Australia while Holland for instance reach the semi-finals, we'll have a tough time regaining the spot among the seeds," Carlzon said.
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