Davis Cup
The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. The largest annual team competition in sport [1], the Davis Cup is run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and is contested between teams of players from competing countries in a knock-out format. The competition began in 1900 as a challenge between the United States and Great Britain. In 2005, 134 nations entered teams into the competition. The United States is the most successful nation to date, winning 31 tournaments, and finishing as runners-up 29 times. Australia is the second most successful, winning 28 times and finishing second 18 times.
The women's equivalent of the Davis Cup is the Fed Cup.
History
The tournament was conceived in 1899 by four members of the Harvard University tennis team who came up with the idea of challenging the British to a tennis showdown. Once the idea received the go ahead from the respective lawn tennis associations, one of the four Harvard players, Dwight F. Davis, designed a tournament format and spent the money from his own pocket to purchase an appropriate sterling silver trophy from Shreve, Crump & Low. The first match, between the United States and Great Britain was held in Boston, Massachusetts in 1900. The American team, of which Dwight Davis was a part, surprised the British by winning the first three matches. The following year the two countries did not compete but the US won the next match in 1902. By 1905 the tournament expanded to include Belgium, Austria, France, and Australasia, a combined team from Australia and New Zealand that competed together until 1913.
The tournament was initially known as the International Lawn Tennis Challenge. It was renamed the Davis Cup following the death of Dwight Davis in 1945. Dwight Davis also became a prominent politician in the United States in the 1920s, serving as Secretary of War from 1925-29 and as Governor General of the Philippines from 1929-32.
From 1950 to 1967, Australia dominated the competition, winning the Cup 15 times in 18 years.
The United States has won the event the most times (31), followed by Australia (24 [28 including Australasia]), France and Great Britain (9 each)[includes 5 for the British Isles], Sweden (7), and Australasia (4).
Up to 1973, the Davis Cup had only ever been won by the United States, Great Britain, France and Australia/Australasia. Their domination was broken in 1974, when South Africa and India qualified for the final. India refused to play in the final that year in protest against the South African government's apartheid policies, thus handing South Africa a walk-over victory. (As of 2006, South Africa has never actually played a single Davis Cup finals match). The very next year saw the first final played between two "outsider" nations, with Sweden beating Czechoslovakia 3-2, and since then, several other countries have gone on to capture the trophy.
On the 100th anniversary of the tournament's founding, 129 nations competed for the Davis Cup.
Format
Tournament
Countries aspire to compete in the elite World Group of 16 nations. Other nations play in regional zones (Americas, Asia/Oceania, and Europe/Africa) in one of four groups. The competition is spread over four weekends during the year. Each tie between competing nations is held in one of the countries. The ITF determines host countries for all possible matchups before each year's tournament.
The World Group is the top group, consisting of a four-round knockout tournament. Teams are seeded based on a ranking system released by the ITF, taking into account previous years' results. The defending champion and runner-up are always the top two seeds in the tournament. The losers of the first-round matches are sent to the World Group playoff round, where they play along with winners from Group I of the regional zones. The playoff round winners play in the World Group for the next year's tournament, while the losers play in Group I of their respective regional zone.
Each of the regional zones is divided into four groups. Groups I and II play knockout tournaments with the losing teams facing relegation to a lower group. Groups III and IV play round-robin tournaments with promotion and relegation.
Prior to 1972, the tournament was played as a challenge cup; the defending champion advanced directly to the final. All teams competed in one "World Group" until 1923, when the teams were split into an "America Zone" and a "Europe Zone". The winners of the two zones met in the Inter-Zonal Zone (INZ) to decide who would challenge for the cup. In 1955, a third zone, the "Eastern Zone" was added. This meant that one team would receive a bye in the first round of the INZ. This situation was eliminated in 1966, when Europe was effectively split into two zones, with each getting a bid to the INZ. After 1972, the winner of the INZ playoff was crowned the champion. The modern-day World Group was established in 1981, although at first, zonal winners were promoted directly into the World Group, and the first-round losers played each other in the World Group Playoff.
Ties
Each tie consists of 5 matches (known as rubbers) carried out over the course of three days, usually Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. On the Friday, the first two matches are singles, generally between the two best available players of each country. A doubles match is played on the second day. On the third day, the final two matches are typically reverse singles in which the first-day contestants usually play again, but swap opponents from the first day's singles matches. However, the team captain may replace one or two of the players who played the singles on Friday by other players who were nominated for the tie. If the tie has already been decided in favour of one of the teams, it is common for younger lower-ranked team members to play the remaining dead-rubbers in order for them to gain Davis Cup experience.
The captain of each nation should nominate a squad of four players for each tie and he decides which of these players will compete in the tie. On the day before play starts, the order of play for the first day is randomly drawn. In the past, teams could only substitute final day singles players in case of injury or illness, verified by a doctor, but nowadays the rules allow teams to select any team member to play the last two singles matches provided that first day matchups are not repeated. There is no restriction on which of the playing team members plays the doubles match: the two singles players, two other players (usually doubles specialists) or a combination.
All rubbers are normally best-of-5 sets. The first four sets use a tiebreak if necessary, but the fifth set has no tiebreaker (play continues if it reaches 6-6 until one player wins by two games, e.g. 10-8). If a team has clinched the tie before all 5 matches are played, the remaining matches may be shortened to best-of-3 sets with tie break in the final set.
In divisions 3 and 4, each tie consist of only 3 matches, 2 singles and one doubles, played over a single day. The matches are best-of-3 sets, with no tie break in the final set.
Records and statistics
Team
- Consecutive titles
- Consecutive finals appearances
- Most number of games in a tie
Individual
- Youngest player
- Kenny Banzer; Liechtenstein; 14 years, 5 days
- Oldest player
- Yaka-Garonfin Koptigan; Togo; 59 years, 147 days
- Most rubbers played
- 146, Nicola Pietrangeli, Italy
- Most ties played
- 68, Nicola Pietrangeli, Italy
- Most rubbers won
- Total: 120, Nicola Pietrangeli, Italy
- Singles: 78, Nicola Pietrangeli, Italy
- Doubles: 42, Nicola Pietrangeli, Italy
Current ITF rankings
as of February 13, 2007
| Rank | Nation | Points | Previous | Rank | Nation | Points | Previous |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Russia |
27,942.5 | [1] | 11 | .svg){kind=small} Belgium |
5,031.3 | [16] |
| 2 |  Argentina |
21,708.8 | [2] | 12 |  Germany |
4,749.4 | [17] |
| 3 |  Croatia |
18,748.8 | [3] | 13 |  Switzerland |
3,656.3 | [10] |
| 4 |  Spain |
16,612.5 | [4] | 14 |  Chile |
3,375.0 | [11] |
| 5 |  United States |
14,750.0 | [6] | 15 |  Czech Republic |
3,000.0 | [15] |
| 6 |  Australia |
12,125.0 | [5] | 16 |  Romania |
2,850.0 | [13] |
| 7 |  Slovakia |
9,726.3 | [7] | 17 |  Austria |
2,685.0 | [18] |
| 8 |  France |
7,875.0 | [8] | 18 |  Thailand |
2,315.0 | [19] |
| 9 |  Belarus |
5,550.6 | [9] | 19 |  Netherlands |
2,046.9 | [14] |
| 10 |  Sweden |
5,406.3 | [12] | 20 |  South Korea |
1,942.5 | [22] |
