The reforms themselves are still subject to approval at their Annual General Meeting in August, and the majority of changes are being kept under wraps, but the snippet regarding the number of sets in the Davis Cup has attracted plenty of attention.

The proposed move to reduce matches at the Davis Cup from the best of five sets to three, rather than helping revitalise the competition, would damage the spectacle for spectators. For fans of tennis, nothing is more enthralling than a match heading into a fifth set after a titanic battle.

It is clear the changes are required to boost the appeal of the 117-year-old competition, an event struggling to attract the top names to compete. Serbia’s Novak Djokovic was the only participating player from the world’s top 10 to feature in last month's World Group first-round ties.

Part of the problem is that the vast majority of top players have already chalked up a victory in the famous competition. Djokovic helped lead Serbia to win the title back in 2010, Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka guided Switzerland to victory in 2014 and Andy Murray was key to Britain’s triumph back in 2015. Rafael Nadal has been part of four Spanish victories during his career.

It is understandable that with victories already on their CVs, the players would rather concentrate competing in more lucrative competitions on the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) WorldTour. The sport’s schedule is heavily packed as it is.

This is perhaps best reflected by the season ending WorldTour Finals taking place in November, before the new season gets underway at the start of January. Rather than having a prolonged off-season, December appears to be the time for pre-season training.

Rather than trying to squeeze the Davis Cup into the calendar, 14-time Grand Slam winner Nadal has suggested the format is lengthened with a single competition taking place across three years.

"The ITF need to make changes, I said a lot of years ago," the Spaniard told the Australian Associated Press yesterday. "And still now there is a new President and new staff that they are trying to make new things, and that's always good. We cannot have a Davis Cup champion every year as that devalues the competition. If the top players are not playing very often, then you are making something not good - you need to change."

The Spaniard added that the ITF "always thinks on the small picture", rather than attempting a radical overhaul of the competition. Perhaps Nadal is correct with his analysis, with moves to reduce the number of sets and the days in which ties are contested arguably just slimming down the competition rather than adding an incentive to the top players.

An idea to throw into the mix might be to limit the top players' involvement in specific ties. For instance, when Britain won the Davis Cup in 2015, much was made of their dependence on Andy Murray in their run through the competition. The current world number one played two singles matches and the doubles rubber in three of Britain’s four ties during the event.

While it is welcomed by spectators to see the top players gracing the occasion, it is clear that the demand that playing three matches in such a short period is a major undertaking. Having achieved the feat of winning the Davis Cup, the incentive to put themselves through a similarly tight schedule of matches would be dampened.

Limiting players to taking part in one rubber could help to reduce the demand on the top players. If four singles players were required to play during ties, it would also truly highlight the strength in depth of a country’s team, rather than a side progressing as a result of having the world’s best player at the time.

A more extreme suggestion could be to follow the lead of a number of other sports and look at creating a mixed competition, combining both the Davis and Fed Cups.

The change might be a shot in the arm competitions after Fed Cup has also faced criticism criticism in recent years.

Andy Murray's mother Judy hit out at the format of the event early last year before stepping down as the captain of Britain’s team. She claimed it momentum for women’s team tennis was limited by the possibility that a team might not play for a year if they suffered defeat in their zone in the early stages of the competition.

The tournament itself has been dominated in recent years by the Czech Republic, who have triumphed in five of the last six years.

 Could a mixed competition help to shake up the team format, as well as helping to attract the world’s best players?