Novak Djokovic, who credits winning the Davis Cup with Serbia in 2010 as the turning point in his career, says the sport’s 119-year-old competition should one day merge with the new ATP Cup, which starts in Australia in January.

Speaking after beating Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka in the revamped competition here, he said: “Scheduling was always an issue for both the ATP Cup and Davis Cup. An idea – that could happen – was to merge the two. I think it’s still open for the future. Looking long-term, I don’t think that the two events can coexist six weeks apart. It’s just a bit too congested.

“I’ve been part of discussions through the player council, through various different ways in the last three years, about the evolution of the ATP Cup and the changes in Davis Cup. And, of course, the ITF and ATP are two different organisations. So it’s very complex. It’s not easy to make any change in our sport. But, when the change is made, at least you make that first step. Of course you can always point out the negatives but there are positives as well.

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“The most ideal time of the year is after the US Open, probably end of September. That would be the best time to have this super cup, whatever, one cup hopefully in the future. That’s my opinion. I don’t know whether that’s realistic or not, whether that’s possible.”

He added: “There are so many different things, so many different people and entities involved that it’s not easy just to say, ‘Let’s pick that date,’ because you have so many different tournaments that you are harming maybe because of that week and so forth.”

Djokovic sympathises with the organisers and ruling bodies over the dilemma, and agrees with Andy Murray that the “World Cup of Tennis”, as the new one-week finale is being marketed, needs time to bed in.

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“When you make a change it’s always going to be a risk. There’s a lot of money invested in this competition,” he said. “There’s 18 teams, 90 players, plus hundreds of people from the staff of all the teams. So it’s a big organisation. It takes a lot of time, a lot of effort to put this together. I’m sure that organisers are doing their best to make this a successful week, a successful event. It’s a lot of responsibility and pressure on them because this is the most traditional, historic team event in our sport, over 100 years. There’s a tremendous burden of history on them to make it right.

“Right now, it is what it is. It is the last week of the year. It’s definitely a tough schedule for a lot of players. It’s really difficult because you have a whole season and then you have to push yourself for another week and eventually play singles, doubles every day.”