Davis Cup 2 is the premier international team event in men’s tennis. It is run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and is contested annually between teams from over 140 competing countries. It is described by the organisers as the “World Cup of Tennis”, and the winners are referred to as the World Champions.^[1] The competition began in 1900 as a challenge between Great Britain and the United States. By 2023, 155 nations entered teams into the competition.^[2]

The most successful countries over the history of the tournament are the United States (winning 32 titles and finishing as runners-up 29 times) and Australia (winning 28 titles, including six with New Zealand as Australasia, and finishing as runners-up 20 times). The current champions are Canada, who beat Australia to win their first title in 2022.

History

The idea for a tournament pitting the best British and Americans in competition against one another was probably first conceived by James Dwight, the first president of the U.S. National Lawn Tennis Association when it formed in 1881. Desperate to assess the development of American players against the renowned British champions, he worked tirelessly to engage British officials in a properly sanctioned match, but failed to do so. He nevertheless tried to entice top international (particularly British) talent to the U.S. and sanctioned semi-official tours of the top American players to Great Britain.^[5] Diplomatic relations between Great Britain and the United States on the tennis front had strengthened such that, by the mid-1890s, reciprocal tours were staged annually between players of the two nations, and an ensuing friendship between American William Larned and Irishman Harold Mahony spurred efforts to formalize an official team competition between the two nations.^[6]

All contract professionals were not allowed to play in the Davis Cup until 1973. The tennis stars who turned professional prior to the Open Era (pre-1968) were not allowed to compete in the Davis Cup despite the fact that the Grand Slam tournaments and most tennis tournaments became Open Era events in 1968. From 1968 national registered professionals were allowed to compete under the control of their national tennis associations. In 1973 Australian players like Rod Laver and Ken Rosewall were allowed to play in the Davis Cup for the first time since 1962 (for Laver) and since 1956 (for Rosewall).^[3]

In 1981, a tiered system of competition was created, in which the 16 best national teams compete in the World Group and all other national teams compete in one of four groups in one of three regional zones. In 1989, the tiebreak was introduced into Davis Cup competition, and from 2016 it is used in all five sets.^[16]