Davis Cup History

History - Facts - Records - Draw - Winners - Schedule - Teams

The 2008 Davis Cup is the number 97 edition of the most important competition among country teams in men's tennis. In the World Cup sixteen teams participate while more than one hundred other teams will compete in different regional groups. Some of the initial matches have taken place during the month of February while the final ones will be held between November 21 and 23, 2008.

Many different countries enter to compete in the exclusive World Group of 16 nations which comprises four rounds of competition spread over four weekends during the year. Each World Group 'tie' between two competing nations consists of 5 matches carried out over the course of three days, usually Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

On the Friday, the first two matches are singles, usually 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 traditionally play again, but swap opponents from the first day's singles matches. If the tie has already been decided in favor 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.

On the Thursday before play starts schedule of play is randomly drawn to decide the pairings of the nominated singles players in the first two rubbers. Many years ago, teams could only substitute final day singles players when the result of the tie had already been determined, but nowadays, the rules allow teams to select any playing team member to play the last two singles matches provided that first day match ups are not repeated.

The women's equivalent of the Davis Cup is the Fed Cup (known as the Federation Cup before 1995).

Davis Cup Milestones

1899 Dwight Davis commissions the Davis Cup trophy.
1900 The first Davis Cup tie takes place and USA defeats British Isles 3-0 in Boston.
1904 France becomes the third nation to join Davis Cup.
1905 The fourth Grand Slam nation, Australasia joins Davis Cup.
1927 France’s Four Musketeers win the first of six consecutive Davis Cup titles to end the dominance of Australasia, Great Britain and USA.
1928 Held on grass up to this point, the Davis Cup Final takes place on the clay of Stade Roland Garros for the first time.
1933 Fred Perry leads Great Britain to first of four consecutive title victories.
1967 Australian legend Harry Hopman captains Australia to victory for the 16th time in 22 attempts.
1970 50 different countries participate in Davis Cup.
1972 Final Round introduced so the champion nation now has to compete in every round.
1981 NEC becomes title sponsor enabling prize money to be given. The 16-strong World Group established.
1982 The longest match in tennis history (six hours 22 minutes) takes place when John McEnroe (USA) defeats Mats Wilander (SWE) 97 62 1517 36 86 in the 1982 World Group Quarterfinal Round. USA wins the tie 3-2
1992 Zonal Competition Group III is introduced.
1993 100 nations compete in Davis Cup.
1995 The United States defeats Russia to win a record 31st Davis Cup title - more than any other nation.
1996 The Davis Cup is won in the fifth set of the fifth rubber for the first time when France defeats Sweden in Malmo.
1997 Zonal Competition Group IV is created.
1999 Davis Cup celebrates its Centennial.
2000 Spain becomes only the 10th nation to capture the Davis Cup Trophy, defeating Australia 3-1 in the final.
2001 A record 142 nations enter Davis Cup.
2002 BNP Paribas takes over as title sponsor. Russia captures its first Davis Cup title against France after Mikhail Youzhny wins the final rubber from two sets down.
2003 Australia wins its 28th Davis Cup title in December in Melbourne, Mark Philippoussis's heroic performance against Juan Carlos Ferrero in the decisive fourth rubber securing a 3-1 victory over Spain.
2004 Andy Roddick breaks the World Record for service speed in the USA's first round tie at home to Austria, serving a 150mph (241.4kph) delivery against Stefan Koubek.
2005 Croatia became the 12th nation to win the Davis Cup by defeating Slovak Republic 3-2 in the World Group Final in Bratislava