Davis Cup

The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. The largest annual team competition in sport, the Davis Cup is run by the International Tennis Federation and is contested between teams of players from competing countries in a knock-out format. In 2005 134 nations entered teams into the competition.

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Countries aspire to compete in the elite 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 (known as 'rubbers') carried out over the course of three days, usually Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. On the Friday, the first two matches are singles, generally 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 favour 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.

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The captain of each nation is able to nominate a squad of four players for each tie and he decides which of these players will compete in the first three rubbers. 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. In the past, 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 matchups are not repeated. There is no restriction on which of the playing team members plays the doubles match: the two singles players, two other players (usually doubles specialists) or a combination.

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All rubbers are normally best-of-5 sets. If a team has clinched the rubber before all 5 matches are played, any remaining reverse singles matches are shortened to best-of-3 sets.

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

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Tennis: :This article is about the sport, tennis. For the video game, see Tennis (video game)....

International Tennis Federation: The International Tennis Federation (ITF) is the governing body of world tennis, made up of 202 national tennis associations....

Fed Cup: The Fed Cup (until 1995 Federation Cup) is the most important tennis tournament for female national teams, very similar to the men's Davis Cup. Both events are sanctioned by the International Tennis Federation....

Davis Cup related Images and Photos (experimental)

Ann B. Davis	Tin Cup (DVD)	Tin Cup (DVD)	Jim Davis
Lucy Davis	Gail Davis	Miles Davis	Baron Davis
Tin Cup	Geena Davis	Vernon Davis	Sammy Davis Jr. Print