"So sad to see these completely empty crowds" - Former Andre Agassi coach Brad Gilbert expresses disappointment over low turnout in Davis Cup Finals

Brad Gilbert recently took to social media to give his two cents on the lack of spectators at this week's Davis Cup Finals.

Gilbert, who coached Andre Agassi to six Major titles, must have kept tabs on the group stage matches of the 2023 Davis Cup Finals, considering how big of a tennis enthusiast he is. The American may not have liked what he saw, though, going by his post on X (formerly Twitter).

Gilbert expressed his disappointment at seeing so many empty seats at the venues. He also suggested some changes that could rejuvenate the team event.

Firstly, the 62-year-old disagreed with holding the fixtures in neutral locations. He called for two-legged ties, i.e. each team gets to play in their home country. Secondly, he felt that the semis and the final should be held on the same day.

"So sad to see these completely empty crowds in @DavisCupFinals, should have kept home and away ties, and have semis and finals together, still time to rectified this egregious mistake to amazing competition," Gilbert wrote, along with a bunch of emojis.

The discourse surrounding the decline in popularity of the 123-year-old event was first started by Stan Wawrinka. He complained about the lack of spectators during the World Group fixture between his home country Switzerland and France in Manchester, UK.

The Swiss also tagged Gerard Pique in his message; it was the former FC Barcelona star's sports company Kosmos that had partnered with the ITF in 2018 to overhaul the old best-of-five format, which required the matches to take place over an entire season in a knockout draw of 16 teams.

The revamped format reduced the matches to best-of-three while introducing a group stage format in the initial rounds of the event. The ITF, however, were not happy with the results and ended their partnership with Kosmos earlier this year.

A recap of the 2023 Davis Cup Finals group stage matches thus far

Canada is likely to win their group at the 2023 Davis Cup Finals

The group stage of the Davis Cup Finals, which involves two singles matches and one doubles match, will run from September 12 to 19. There are four groups in the first round of the competition, with the top two teams in each group qualifying for the knockout stage in Malaga in November.

2022 Davis Cup champions Canada have already qualified from Group A after winning their first two ties against Italy and Sweden. Chile, meanwhile, is gunning against Italy for the second spot and will face them later on Friday (September 15).

The winner of Group B, meanwhile, is yet to be decided, as both France and Australia have split their ties. Switzerland are on the verge of exiting the Davis Cup Finals, as they lost all of their fixtures during their encounter against the French on Monday (September 12).

Group C has been dominated by the Czech Republic, who have won all six of their matches thus far (four singles and two doubles). Serbia are the favorites to join them as the group winners, with World No. 1 Novak Djokovic all set to represent his home country in their upcoming ties.

Lastly, the Netherlands leads Group D of the Davis Cup Finals group stage, having beaten Finland and the USA thus far. The 32-time winners USA have split their two ties and will be eager to make it to the knockout stage by beating Finland in their upcoming match.