Davis Cup, The World Cup of Tennis, supervised by the ITF, International Tennis Federation, brings an unbelievable 134 nations together for the world’s largest annual international team competition in any sport. Many of the world’s top tennis players claim Davis Cup is different than the rest of the tournament season. As they compete for their national team, they not only commit to represent themselves, but they take pride in representing their teams and nations. The biggest tennis stars, such as Rod Laver, Jimmy Connors, Ivan Lendl, Peter Sampras, Andre Agassi, Marat Safin and Roger Federer all represented and showed their best tennis for their countries in Davis Cup!
Davis Cup is played in a group format. In 2021, the new format saw the creation of a Davis Cup World Group I and World Group II immediately below the top tier of the competition, replacing the regional Group I and Group II ties currently being played in Americas, Asia/Oceania and Europe/Africa. As part of these changes, the ITF introduced an additional play-off round for both World Group I and World Group II that held alongside the Davis Cup Qualifiers.
In 2022, twelve cities around the world will host the twelve matches that guarantee the winners a place at the 2022 Finals. The 16 nations competing in the 2022 Davis Cup by Rakuten Finals have announced their teams for the Group Stage, which takes place across four European cities (Bologna, Valencia, Hamburg and Glasgow) on 13-18 September. The top two teams in each group will advance to the Final 8 knockout stage in Malaga on 22-27 November 2022.
2022 World Group Davis Cup Schedule and Tickets
- Davis Cup Tickets and daviscupfinals.com
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About Davis Cup
Davis Cup, originally known as the International Lawn Tennis Challenge is considered to be The World Cup of Tennis. It was first played in 1900 when four Harvard University men tennis player wished to organize a match between The United States and Great Britain. Once approved, one of the enthusiast tennis team members, Dwight Davis, decided to create a tournament format and buy a champions trophy from his own pocket money.
At the time, Americans gained a quick lead 3-0 at the Longwood Cricket Club in Boston, the site of the competition. The tournament continued to grow in popularity and by 1905, teams such as France, Austria, Belgium, and Australasia (Australia and New Zealand) became its regular participants. The competition became so famous that by the 1920s, there were over 20 nations, and by 1969, there were over 50 nations competing in Davis Cup.
The main and most important World Group consists of 16 nations and the rest of the countries are divided into three regional Zones based on their location – Americas, Asia/Oceania, and Europe/Africa. In addition, each Zone has three to four subdivisions – Group I. through Group IV. with Group I. being the highest. World Group is being played four times a year; eight teams that win their first rounds progress to quarterfinals, then semifinals, finals and at the end, they become champions. Also, they are guaranteed the participation in the highest Group the following year, however, those who lose have to compete against eight winners from Zone Group I and defeat their spots in the highest competition.
The matches between nations in World Group and Zone Groups I and II follow a best-of-five rubbers format – two singles on first and a third day and doubles on the second day, and are played over a three-day weekend at the location determined by the hosting nation. Zone Groups III and IV follow slightly different format than other three groups. They are usually played over a week at one location and follow a round-robin format.
Previous Davis Cup Dates:
- Nov 25 – Dec 5, 2021, Madrid, Innsbruck and Turin each hosted two of the six groups, with Madrid staging two quarter-finals, and Innsbruck and Turin one quarter-final each. The Spanish capital also hosted the semi-finals and final.
The 2021 Finals featured 18 teams:
- 12 qualifiers – Australia, Austria, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Kazakhstan, Sweden and USA
- The previous year’s four semi-finalists – Spain, Canada, Great Britain and Russia
- Two wild card nations – France and Serbia
The 18 teams competed in six round-robin groups of three teams. The six group winners plus the two second-placed teams with the best records based on sets and games won will qualify for the quarter-finals.
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