'Beyond belief': Sinner and Raducanu criticized for snubbing national teams
NewsFriday, 28 November 2025 at 16:40
Jannik Sinner and Emma Raducanu's decision to skip the 2025 Davis Cup Finals and the 2025 Billie Jean King Cup Finals was not well-received by former Australian Open runner-up John Lloyd.
Team Italy retained its Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup titles. Once again, Jasmine Paolini inspired the women to victory, defeating a strong American team that contained Jessica Pegula in September's final.
Despite being held on home soil in Bologna, Sinner did not play in the Davis Cup Finals. This year's ATP Finals champion openly admitted that he wanted an extra week to prepare for the 2026 Australian Open after winning at the year-end championships.
Lorenzo Musetti also did not feature in Turin. Matteo Berrettini, who always seems to become inspired when representing his country, and the other team members made a mockery of Sinner and Musetti's absence to secure the title.
Carlos Alcaraz also did not feature, but that was due to injury. Alexander Zverev was the only Top 10 who participated at the Davis Cup Finals, and Lloyd is unhappy with the current state of the team competition.
In an appearance on the Mitch Michals Podcast, Lloyd bluntly said the Davis Cup has become a joke and that the passion of Italian fans cheering for their home players would not fool the public about its condition.
"To be honest, my reaction was sadness, not because Italy won it, but because of where the Davis Cup has come now. This, to me, I have been saying for years and years, that the Davis Cup has become a bit of a joke."
"It’s managed to get away with it, because when it’s being played in a different country, whether it’s patriotic, you still get people coming to watch no matter what. But you cannot have a competition that is billed as the greatest team competition when you have one player in the top 10 playing."
Lloyd then made his feelings about Sinner known. He thinks that the world No. 2 and Musetti preferring an extra week off to playing for their country on home soil is scarcely believable.
"But Musetti and Sinner did not play because of physical reasons. They basically said that they wanted a rest and they wanted to prepare for next year. That to me is beyond belief. That’s where the Davis Cup has come now. That never would have happened [in my era]."
Raducanu did not play at September's Billie Jean King Cup Finals for Team Great Britain because she wanted to work with new coach Francisco Roig. Lloyd, a former British Davis Cup captain, is disappointed about that decision.
"Emma Raducanu of Great Britain had a chance for the first time to possibly win it. She pulls out of it and says she wants to spend more time with the new coach and get ready for the next season or ranking points."
"I am thinking, are you kidding me? When is it not a privilege to play for your country? Where has the game come to now, where players are saying it’s the end of the season?"
Lloyd's feelings were similar to Nicola Pietrangeli's. The Italian tennis legend delivered a scathing assessment of Sinner's decision not to play in the Davis Cup, calling it an insult to the country.
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