The Davis Cup: Then, Now, and….the Future? - UBITENNIS

The Davis Cup: Then, Now, and….the Future?

By skip schwarzman
4 Min Read
Dwight Davis and the trophy cup that bears his name, 1924

Originally known as The International Tennis Competition, the annual competition began as a tennis battle exclusively between the United States and Great Britain. In 1905 the field was expanded to include France, Austria, Belgium, and Australasia (a combination of Australia and New Zealand). More countries were added over the years; today there are 150 countries participating.

Besides the ever-growing list of countries vying for the Cup, the biggest change in Davis Cup’s format was the abolishment of the Challenge Round in 1972. Previous to that a year-ending championship team sat out the subsequent year’s competition until a challenger emerged from the knockout rounds, and then played only the one, final round against that team.

The current structure (introduced in 1981):

  • A top level, named World Cup, consisting of 16 countries’ teams, plays directly for the Cup via a knockout format determined by draw. The four rounds of play take place over 4 weekends during the course of a year, beginning just after the Australian Open in January. The finals are played in November.
  • The remaining nations are split into lower tiers.
  • All tiers, including World Group, have promotion and relegation rules that give teams annual chances to move up, or down.
  • Team matches (called “ties”) are held on a home/away basis, with the location determined by a formula that considers the teams’ individual won/loss records.
  • The hosting/home team gets to choose the court surface.

As has been the case since the Cup’s inception, each team match consists of an opening day’s singles on Friday, a second day’s doubles match on Saturday, and a third day’s singles matches on Sunday, with the first day’s players going against whomever they did not play on Friday.

 

All matches are best of 5 sets, and clearly a team needs to win 3 matches to win the weekend’s contest. If either of Sunday’s singles matches are made redundant because a team has already won 3 matches, those match(es) are reduced to best of 3 sets.

‘There was lots of shouting during points and (the Italian fans) started throwing coins”

 – UK team member Buster Mottram, on his 1978 Davis Cup match vs Adriana Panatta in Rome

The new proposed format:

  • The establishment of a season-ending World Cup of Tennis Finals (WCTF) that crowns the Davis Cup champions.
  • The WCTF is played at a neutral site, chosen well ahead of time, and lasts 7 days.
  • 16 countries go to the WCTF based on their performance to
  • date, similar to the current World Group. These 16 countries, plus 2 that are selected by the ITF, are placed into 6 round robin groups of three teams each.
  • The 6 winners of the round robin groups, plus the two teams with the best losing records, are fed into a quarterfinal knockout tournament.
  • The winner of the knockout rounds is the year’s Davis Cup championship team.
  • All team competitions consist of 2 singles matches and 1 doubles match, all matches are best of 3 sets.
  • Promotion/relegation rules will again be in place, giving national teams not part of one year’s WCTF to gain entry in following years.
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