With Rafael Nadal falling flat on his back on the baseline, his triumphant team-mates running on court to pile on top of him and a partisan home stadium rocking with pride, it was a familiar scene as Spain lifted the Davis Cup.

Yet, while the celebrations were similar to many we have seen in previous years, the host nation’s first success since 2011 came at the end of a very different week in Madrid.

Unlike in the past, Spain’s victory over Canada was not the only Davis Cup tie to take place in November as the tournament culminated. Instead it was the end of an 18-nation finals self-styled as the ‘World Cup of Tennis’.

The football-style knockout tournament, a bold concept conceived and financially backed by Barcelona defender Gerard Pique and his Kosmos investment group, faced a barrage of criticism before it had even started.

And, as with any new event, especially one of such size and stature, there were teething problems in the Spanish capital.

But there were also many memorable moments in what proved to be a high-quality tournament on the court.

Here, BBC Sport analyses what worked in the new-look finals, what perhaps didn’t and the lessons that must be learned before next year’s event.

• Spain beat Canada to win Davis Cup
• Jamie Murray column on Davis Cup improvements

The star names sprinkle stardust on the new finals

For years, the common consensus had been the 119-year competition needed to change.

Top players, worried about burn out on the punishing ATP Tour, were regularly not turning out to play in a 16-team world group that saw home and away ties spread over four weekends throughout the year.

Pique, a tennis fan said to have been a promising junior player, was the catalyst for change.

But his intervention, and the changing of a tradition which had existed in the previous format since 1981, was not welcomed by tennis die-hards, including the most recognisable player on the planet.

Swiss great Roger Federer resisted the change and urged that the competition should not become the “Pique Cup”.

While the 20-time Grand Slam champion was not present in Madrid after Switzerland failed to qualify three of the other ‘Big Four’ did play.

Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray were the star names present as 11 of the world’s top 20 singles players also appeared at the event. Russian world number four Daniil Medvedev and German world number seven Alexander Zverev were the only members of the world’s top 10 who pulled out in spite of their nations qualifying.

The presence of so many key players was seen as an encouraging sign by Pique and ITF chief David Haggerty.

“When we started a few years ago with the project of the new format, what we wanted basically was that the top players participate in the competition. I think that was a fact,” Pique said.

“You saw here the top players playing and representing their countries.”

Whether that will continue to be the case largely depends if a merger with January’s 24-nation ATP Cup – created by the men’s tour and attracting all the top-ranked players except Federer – can ever be agreed to avoid a situation where two men’s team events take place within close proximity of each other.

Different format, same emotions stirred

Try telling those competing in Madrid – and their compatriots who had spent time and money travelling there – that the new format had devalued the competition as some suggested.

World number one Nadal tore around the Caja Magica as he won all eight of his singles and double rubbers to inspire the Spanish.

Novak Djokovic along with the entire Serbia team were left close to tears following a dramatic quarter-final loss to Russia. In an emotional news conference post match, Djokovic’s doubles partner Viktor Troicki – who played a woeful third-set tie-break – said he felt “the worst ever” after been given the chance to “be the hero, only for God to take it away”.

Former world number one Andy Murray was contorted with nervous emotion as he watched his older brother Jamie and Neal Skupski try to put their nation into the final by beating Nadal and Feliciano Lopez in a decisive doubles rubber.

And try telling Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut, who was left in tears after winning his singles rubber against Canada three days after the death of his father, that representing his country was still not of significant pride and honour.

Fears the emotion could be sucked out of the competition proved wide of the mark, although it remains to be seen what a finals weekend without the host nation competing would look like.

Empty seats for most matches – give them to the kids?

Patriotism was not in short supply in the stands either.

Clearly that peaked during the Spanish ties where the Caja Magica stands were a sea of red-and-yellow flags as the partisan home crowd, encouraged to make noise by a jaunty brass band and a man barking out instructions through a football terrace-style megaphone, willed their team towards a first Davis Cup triumph since 2011.

That understandably gave those matches a flavour of the ‘old’ Davis Cup – and an advantage to Spain.

While some other teams were well backed – notably Great Britain, Canada and Kazakhstan, thanks to the help of their national federation – other matches were played out in half-full arenas.

Even Saturday’s first semi-final between Canada and Russia saw huge swathes of empty red seats.

The Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) offered 875 free tickets to British fans for the semi-final against Spain – at a cost of about £60,000 – and British captain Leon Smith thinks there should be an arrangement between organisers and the governing bodies of all 18 finalists to subside support in the future.

“The most important thing about Davis Cup is obviously trying to maintain the atmosphere,” he said.

“Why doesn’t that become the norm that there’s X amount of investment given to each federation to get a core group of fans?”

Spain’s two group games and Sunday’s final were the only ties to officially sell out the 12,500 capacity Manolo Santana court, according to the tournament’s online ticket portal.

“I do think the organisers missed an opportunity there by not giving the unsold tickets to schoolchildren and getting them in to watch the matches,” British player Jamie Murray said in his BBC Sport column.

“That would have been a good idea and would have exposed young kids – the future of the sport as potential players and fans – to tennis.”

A second venue in Madrid would prevent 4am finishes

While Spanish custom dictates the nation generally stays awake until the early hours, a major problem which arose was ridiculously late finishes in some matches with ties outlasting all but the most nocturnal of fans.

The group tie between the United States and Italy was the most startling, eye-rubbing example, finally ending at 04:04 local time to become the second latest finish in top-level tennis history behind Lleyton Hewitt’s win over Marcos Baghdatis at the 2008 Australian Open which ended at 4:33am.

“We expect that some games will be finished late, but obviously 4am was too late,” Pique said.

“That day all the games, they were very long.

“But we will have to be more creative in the future. I think this is not a big issue. It’s something we have to think how we do it.”

Britain’s Jamie Murray has suggested the finals should be split across two venues in Madrid next year, enabling one court to host one tie every day rather than two sessions.

When asked if the Spanish capital’s WiZink Center could be used next year, or where a fourth court could be built at the Caja Mágica, Pique said both options “are right now are on the table”.

Too focused on TV fans and not those there?

Between 800 and 1,000 British fans roared their team on in each of their four matches, with some staying for the whole week in the hope of seeing the 2015 champions end victorious again.

The majority of supporters appeared to savour the sense of occasion that mixing with fans from all over the world brought, although a large portion still bemoaned the loss of the previous home-and-away format.

“It is a fantastic atmosphere, we’ve talked to people from loads of different countries,” said Pam Flatman, who flew over from Norfolk with husband Wayne and their friend Mac Boreham. “It brings people together and from that perspective it’s a good thing.”

One common gripe among fans of all nationalities was they felt the tournament was more geared towards the needs of armchair fans than those actually in Madrid.

“There are no screens dotted around, so there is no information from the other matches,” said Mac. “At Wimbledon you know what’s happening but here you know nothing.”

Pam added: “Scoreboards and TVs outside in the concourses are necessary – and more outside heaters because the Madrid winter can be very chilly. It’s been freezing standing out here.”

The tournament also ended with a tinge of disappointment for fans at the venue. Spain lifted the trophy with many supporters having already left the arena, unwilling to sit through an unnecessarily elaborate and time-consuming setting up of the presentation stage.

Those trying keeping up-to-date with the action from afar reported a series of issues.

Technological glitches surfaced on the official Davis Cup finals information channels – including website, mobile app and stadium televisions – which ranged from comical errors to more serious issues of fan engagement.

While British number one Dan Evans’ profile featuring a faceless image instead of a photograph like everyone else was not the end of the world, nor was Germany’s team page describing Zverev – absent and a harsh vocal critic – as the ‘star of the their team’, the fundamental ability to update scores and competing players correctly was a failure.

Often, the scores of matches were wrong and slow to update, while Britain were apparently represented by Argentine Guido Pella in their quarter-final against Germany.

Selling television rights proved to be a problem in some major markets, with the tournament not shown on a major American broadcaster and only being available to British television audience at a late stage when Eurosport stepped in to secure the rights.

Another peculiarity was the decision to set up new Twitter and Instagram accounts under the ‘Davis Cup finals’ banner rather than use the existing Davis Cup accounts which have a combined 500,000 followers.

Although the behind-the-scenes content was excellent – fun, interactive and engaging – and retweeted by the main Davis Cup accounts in a bid to build the brand, the new accounts only had a combined 60,000 followers which leads a suspicion that reach was not as wide as it could have been.

“Our vision is to make sure this is seen in as many places by as many people and followed around the world. That’s something that, again, is something we can improve,” Pique added.

In his final BBC Sport column at the Davis Cup in Madrid, Jamie Murray discusses Great Britain’s semi-final exit against a Spain side inspired by Rafael Nadal, the lessons that need to be learned from the inaugural finals and trying veganism.

Overall the Great Britain team had a very good week at the Davis Cup finals, reaching the semi-finals and with all of us enjoying being part of the new-look tournament.

Although the manner of the semi-final defeat by Spain is going to hurt Neal Skupski and me for a little while, it was a great match against Rafael Nadal and Feliciano Lopez in the deciding doubles.

It was exciting and the crowd were right into it – that’s what the Davis Cup is for me.

It is just a shame Rafa and Feli were so inspired!

I couldn’t touch Rafa’s serve; everything was 195kph on the lines.

On one of the set points we had, I had a volley I could have maybe done a bit better with but it was a good return close to the net, it wasn’t easy to deal with it.

Then Rafa had that amazing lob from full stretch forwards on another, which is pretty tough to do.

It is unfortunate, but you’ve got to give Rafa and Feli massive credit.

• Spain beat Canada to win Davis Cup
• GB should be excited for future after reaching semi-final – captain Smith

The match helped show again what a great sport doubles is, that it is so fun and exciting.

In this case, it was a contrast of styles, with singles players going against specialist doubles players with different skill sets.

It was a good platform for doubles to show itself in its best light.

To see Rafa fighting so hard for his country in the decisive doubles rubber was cool. Obviously those top singles players aren’t playing every week – but when they do, it is exciting and it elevates our discipline.

‘Pique would be silly not to talk to the players’

For the players, the tournament was a positive experience. I particularly enjoyed seeing all the players and fans from 18 different nations being in the same place and wearing their national colours – and I thought organisers Kosmos did a good job from our perspective.

With this new ‘World Cup of tennis’ event being such a radical change from the old home-and-away format, there were always likely to be some issues and there are obviously a couple of major things that need to be addressed going ahead.

One is the scheduling because some matches weren’t finishing until the early morning, including one at 4:04am between the United States and Italy.

A solution could be to have a second venue in Madrid, somewhere that’s got two or three courts like the Caja Magica.

That would mean matches could be split across both venues and played in one day-to-evening session, instead of a day session followed by a night session like this year.

If they had six courts, the three at the Caja Magica and three somewhere else, then they can have one tie on each court and start at midday or early afternoon.

That would see play go through to the evening or until about 10pm and stop the late finishes we have seen this week.

The second issue is getting the stadiums fuller for all of the matches, because only the Spain matches were sold out.

We were fortunate we had a lot of British fans who travelled to the event and made it a good atmosphere for all the matches we played. It wasn’t like that for all the other matches.

I do think the organisers missed an opportunity there by not giving the unsold tickets to schoolchildren and getting them in to watch the matches.

That would have been a good idea and would have exposed young kids – the future of the sport as potential players and fans – to tennis.

Once the tournament finishes, I would hope that Kosmos president Gerard Pique and the International Tennis Federation speak to the players to get our views on the week. I think it would be silly not to.

I’m sure they are already aware of the good and the bad things from this week and they need to address the things that didn’t work.

With them investing so much money into the event, they will want it perfect.

I think there were positives this week and they will want to build on them to make next year even better.

‘I’ve tried eating vegan and would consider becoming fully vegan after tennis’

When we were playing in Basel last month, I posted a picture of a few of the British guys – me, Neal Skupski, Dan Evans, his coach Mark Hilton and our Davis Cup captain Leon Smith – with a caption ‘Back the (vegan) Brits’.

Evo is vegan and Hilts is doing it, so we were all eating vegan that week, going to a Thai restaurant every night for vegan food.

I’ve tried veganism before. I’m not fully vegan but I think as a base diet, the staple of your diet, it is really good.

But I find it too hard to maintain when I’m travelling and also it is about making sure you get enough content to eat. If I’m at home, I can control it but sometimes when I’m travelling it is out of your control, in terms of what food they provide at tournaments.

I did it for a couple of weeks after the French Open and I lost about two and a half to three kilos.

That tells you I probably needed to lose it, or I could afford to lose it, but I wasn’t eating as much as I needed to – that’s why I was losing the weight because I wasn’t getting the calories in.

It’s tough to say if that weight loss affected my training levels or performance, positively or negatively. I couldn’t honestly say if it was beneficial or not, I don’t know.

I think if I was eating enough food, then going vegan full-time would be fine, but at the time I was training a lot and not getting enough calories.

That was because I was getting food delivered each day, which had a certain amount of calories that I wasn’t used to and I wasn’t topping up loads.

I like the ethics of veganism and for me the biggest thing was for my own health.

Post-career, I would maybe think about becoming fully vegan. You have less appetite because you are not working out as much and need to be more aware and careful – as you need to keep the weight off otherwise you would balloon!

Jamie Murray was talking to BBC Sport’s Jonathan Jurejko in Madrid.

Roberto Bautista Agut put Spain 1-0 ahead in their Davis Cup final against Canada with an emotional victory over Felix Auger-Aliassime in Madrid.

Bautista Agut, making a surprise return to the team following the death of his father on Thursday, beat the 19-year-old 7-6 (7-3) 6-3.

He was in tears after the win while addressing the jubilant crowd.

Spain will seal victory if world number one Rafael Nadal beats Denis Shapovalov in the second singles rubber.

Canada are in their first final, while Spain are chasing a sixth title.

The final is a best-of-three tie, where a doubles rubber would decide the outcome if the teams are level after the two singles matches.

• Follow live coverage of Spain v Canada – radio & text
• Live scores, schedule and results
• Alerts: Get tennis news sent to your phone

Bautista Agut puts aside grief to deliver for Spain

Bautista Agut rushed home on Thursday after his father was taken ill and the Spanish federation later announced the player’s dad had died.

But the world number nine returned to Madrid to watch his team-mates beat Great Britain in the semi-finals on Saturday before being recalled for the final.

The 31-year-old, whose mother died last year, pointed to the sky after claiming victory when Auger-Aliassime went wide on the first of three match points.

“It was very special feeling on the court and I just could go out and try my best, give my best,” he told Eurosport.

“I am very happy I could win the first point for Spain.”

Auger-Aliassime was playing his first match at the revamped tournament this week after an ankle injury, with Canada reaching the title-decider by using just the same two players in all of their singles and doubles matches – Shapovalov and Vasek Pospisil.

Captain Leon Smith says Great Britain can be excited about their chances of future success in the Davis Cup despite a heartbreaking semi-final defeat by a Rafael Nadal-inspired Spain in Madrid.

Doubles pair Jamie Murray and Neal Skupski lost the deciding rubber to Nadal and Feliciano Lopez in a 7-6 (7-3) 7-6 (10-8) defeat.

It clinched a 2-1 win for hosts Spain, who play Canada in Sunday’s final.

“I look forward to a really positive 2020,” Smith said.

• Great Britain miss out on final after losing decisive doubles to Spain
• GB’s semi-final defeat as it happened

Britain’s five-man team of Andy Murray, Dan Evans, Kyle Edmund, Jamie Murray and Skupski reached the last four of the inaugural season-ending finals, which are the brainchild of Barcelona footballer Gerard Pique, to ensure an automatic spot in next year’s event.

Edmund, 24, was the star player for Britain, winning all three of his singles rubbers in straight sets, despite a disappointing ATP season where he has slipped to 69th in the world.

Andy Murray, 32, missed the last three matches after struggling for fitness during a sluggish three-set win over world number 179 Tallon Griekspoor in the opening victory over the Netherlands.

Evans, who won one of his four singles matches, is ranked as the British number one, while Jamie Murray and Skupski are continuing to improve as regular doubles partner.

Smith also pointed to Cameron Norrie and doubles player Joe Salisbury – Britain’s sole representative at the recent ATP Finals – to illustrate the depth at his disposal.

“Everyone’s got their different journey to go on, but I think we should be excited by what we have in British tennis,” said Smith, whose side also beat Kazakhstan and Germany.

“We’ve got so many different things going. I think it’s great, it’s positive.

“Hopefully everyone can just keep on that path and we come back here next year with an even stronger team than the strong team we have already got.”

Jamie Murray and Skupski, who had an impressive week on his Davis Cup debut, could not convert any of four second-set points against world singles number one Nadal, 32, and 38-year-old Lopez in Saturday’s semi-final.

The Spanish pair, roared on by a boisterous home crowd in the Caja Magica, swung the momentum back in their favour and converted a second match point to leave the British contingent devastated.

“The emotion is still raw,” Smith told BBC Sport.

“You’re within a couple of points of going into a deciding third set and then it’s game on. There was nothing in it. I’m proud of all of them.

“We’re hurting, but we’ve seen an amazing tie here against Spain, who are arguably the strongest team in the competition, especially with Rafa in it.

“We’ve pushed them within a couple of points to a deciding set to see who goes into the final.

“To reach semi-finals is a brilliant achievement, we have come through tough matches and tough moments.

“Everyone has stepped up and we’ll look back proudly on this.”