Alexander Zverev is ending his season at the Davis Cup Finals, despite branding the current format of the team tournament an "exhibition". The world No. 3 recently shared his wish to see the World Cup of men's tennis return to traditional home-and-away ties, rather than eight countries facing off for the title in one host city, as they are this week in Bologna.

However, Zverev has still decided to represent team Germany and he's the highest-ranked singles player competing at this week's Finals following the withdrawal of world No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz, who picked up an injury at the ATP Finals.

Zverev is one of several players who has called for major changes to be made to the Davis Cup in recent days. "The true Davis Cup is the home-and-away ties," the former Olympic champion said last week in Turin.

"In a way, yeah, the real Davis Cup is the atmosphere. To play against Italy in Italy, it would be a completely different atmosphere than playing Italy in Spain. I played against Nadal in a bullfighting arena. That's for me the real Davis Cup.

"I always keep my opinion. I always said my opinion over the last couple years. I don't think this Davis Cup is the real Davis Cup. It's an exhibition tournament in a way that is called Davis Cup."

However, the 28-year-old was still happy to represent his country at the Davis Cup Finals in Bologna, and is part of the German team alongside Jan-Lennard Struff, Yannick Hanfmann, Kevin Krawietz, and Tim Puetz.

Zverev travelled down from Turin after being eliminated in the group stage of the ATP Finals last Friday and will lead Germany in their quarter-final tie against Argentina on Thursday. And the world No. 3 said he still had good reason to compete in the Davis Cup even if he didn't agree with its current format.

He explained: "I'm very happy to be with this team. I said it before. The only reason I'm here is because of this team. I still say, and I will keep saying, that I prefer the old format of the Davis Cup. I always said it and I will continue saying it. I think it was history. I think it was a big part of playing the home and away matches.

"I also love this team. I understand everybody's not getting younger. We all want to have success together. We only have a couple more years left to do that within this formation. This is why I'm here. I truly believe that we have a great team. I truly believe we have a team that we can win this thing with. I'm looking forward to competing together with these guys."

If Germany come through their quarter-final tie, they will face either Spain or Czechia in the semi-finals. France, Belgium, Italy and Austria are also vying to lift the trophy affectionately known as the 'Salad Bowl'.