Davis Cup is the world’s most important men’s team tennis championship. The annual tournament takes its name from the silver bowl trophy awarded to the winning team. Dwight F. Davis, a leading American tennis player, donated the cup in 1900, the same year the competition began. The tournament is supervised by the International Tennis Federation.
The format of the tournament has changed over the years. In 1900, the competition involved only the United States and the United Kingdom. Starting in 1905, other nations began to participate. From 1981 to 2018, the cup was a single-elimination tournament involving 16 qualifying nations. The play extended for many months at sites throughout the world.
Today, the tournament begins with 24 nations playing matches in a qualifying round in February. The 12 winners advance to a week-long group stage tournament in September. They are joined by the 2 finalists from the previous year, along with 2 wild-card nations.
The 16 nations are placed into four four-team groups in which each team plays the other three. The top two teams in each of the four groups advance to the Finals, a week-long single-elimination tournament in November. All contests in both the group stage and the Finals consist of three matches—two singles and one doubles. Each match victor is the first to win two sets.
Loading the player...Davis Cup in 1948
