Report: Gerard Pique closes embattled Kosmos tennis division

FLASHBACK: Canada are the defending Davis Cup champions after beating Australia to win the title last year.

Gerard Pique’s short-lived, but controversial, foray into tennis might be over.

Per a recent report from Spanish newspaper Okdiario, Kosmos Global Holdings, the conglomerate chaired by the former Barcelona soccer star, has closed both Kosmos Tennis and Kosmos Management.

In January, the International Tennis Federation announced that the 25-year, $3 billion deal that it signed with Kosmos in 2018 to reimagine Davis Cup was over after just five years. Its tenure was turbulent. The 2019 Davis Cup finals were consolidated into a single-city format, ending a decades-long tradition of home and away ties. After criticism surrounding low attendance and late-night finishes in Madrid, the Finals were staged in three cities beginning in 2021, with champions crowned in Madrid that year and Malaga in 2022.

The statement did not give details surrounding the split, but the ITF confirmed that the Final 8 round would again take place in Malaga this year.

"As well as being focused on delivering another spectacular edition of the men’s World Cup of Tennis, we are focused on the future growth of the largest annual international team competition in sport," it read in part.

Pique's move also affects players including Borna Coric, Daria Kasatkina, Andrey Rublev and Elina Svitolina, who were represented by Galo Blanco, former ATP player and coach to Karen Khachanov, Milos Raonic and Dominic Thiem, through Kosmos' management arm. According to the report, Blanco left Kosmos to start his own agency, 72Sports Group, and these players will be represented by him and that group moving forward.

Thiem, who was the first player signed by Kosmos' agency in 2021, left the group in February and is now represented by his brother, Mortiz.