Crowning moment Dave Haggerty (left) at the presentation ceremony after Russia won last year's Davis Cup Finals in Madrid
his travel over the last two years, he has instead had to spend a lot of time on video conference calls. Being unable to stage the Davis Cup Finals and Billie Jean King Cup Finals in 2020 also had amajor impact on the ITF’s finances. “Not having the amount of money that we had, we learned, number one, to prioritise,” Haggerty said. “We also had to use our reserves, but that’s what reserves are there for in those unexpected times - so that we could continue to do what we needed to do for the nations.” One bonus of the travel restrictions, nevertheless, has been the chance to attendmore football matches at TottenhamHotspur, where Haggerty has a season ticket. He was a Tottenham fan even before he relocated to London for his ITF job, having coached a girls’ football team in the United States alongside a Briton who was a Spurs supporter. Although he had always travelled in his work, this is the first time Haggerty has lived outside the United States. However, he has relishedmoving to London, where the ITF is based. “People sometimes say that Americans don’t travel very well andwe’re not very international,” Haggerty said. “I can confirm that that’s often the case, so I love trying to be the Americanwho has maybe a different perspective. Moving to London was great, because it put me closer to Europe. The ITF has 50 nations in Europe, so it’s been good being closer to those nations. It’s also a great jumping-off point to
get to Asia, to get to the Americas, to get anywhere that you need to.” Haggerty is currently in the third year of his second four-year teamas president. He says he has yet to decide whether he will seek re-election next year but admits he would “love to continue themission, because I think we have a number of things that are in progress, but aren’t quite at the finish line”. Further tweaks to the Davis Cup Finals are in the offing, while bringing the final stages of the Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup together remains a long-term goal, though Haggerty admits it “may not happen in my ITF lifetime”. He also believes that it would be in the best interests of the sport to have only onemen’s teamevent, at the end of the year, rather than the current situationwhere the end-of-season Davis Cup is followed barely amonth later by the ATP Cup. “I think
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