Novak Djokovic has criticised the International Tennis Federation for not listening to the top players over changes to the Davis Cup format.
ITF president David Haggerty announced in September that proposals were being put forward to alter the competition, including staging the final at a neutral venue and reducing matches from best-of-five sets to best of three.
Djokovic, who is a member of the ATP Player Council, agrees with the latter but not the former and feels more radical changes are needed to entice the top players back.
The packed calendar is the main problem, with Davis Cup ties being squeezed in amongst the most important events on the calendar.
This year the quarter-finals and semi-finals took place after Wimbledon and the US Open respectively, with next weekend's final between Croatia and Argentina coming hot on the heels of the ATP World Tour Finals.
Next year's first-round matches are the weekend after the Australian Open final.
Those dates are popular with players who are not likely to be playing at the latter stages of grand slams or Masters events, but not with leading figures like Djokovic, Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal, who have played sparingly in recent years.
And, without the marquee names, the competition undoubtedly suffers.
Djokovic said: "This format is not working for the top players because it's just completely at the wrong time in the schedule.
"If you go back five years, you see the amount of the top players that played at the later stages of the Davis Cup, you see that it lost value.
"Of course, they have to change. In my opinion, the only way to work is, once a year, one or two weeks, have a round-robin format, four, five, six groups, have teams play in different locations, then come together in one location and play a knock-out stage, quarter-finals, semi-finals, final four, whatever.
"It's a no-brainer. I'm not the only one to have this kind of opinion about it. Many of the players have been talking about this format and the schedule, top players especially, because it just comes right after grand slams, right after World Tour Finals.
"ITF owns Davis Cup. ITF hasn't been really very helpful with the players' demands. The only thing that they wanted to change is the neutral final, I think for next year or the year after that, which, talking to all the players on the council, most of the players also around the tour, nobody agrees with that.
"You're taking away from the players the one thing that players love about Davis Cup, which is the home tie, the home crowd."
The bidding process for national associations and cities interested in hosting a neutral final is due to begin next month, with a decision expected to be made next summer.
Djokovic, whose 2010 Davis Cup triumph with Serbia was a major catalyst for his rise to the very top of the game, said: "I don't know how the future of Davis Cup will look like.
"I respect that competition. It has a long history. I love playing for my country. This is the only official team competition we have in our sport. But there is definitely something radically that has to change."
Source: PA
