can you explain the way tennis' davis cup works....i've occasionally caugh a bit of commentary....?

Question

....but they never seem to explain it then.

all i seem to hear each time is that team GB is at the first hurdle, and as they havnt won...thats the last i hear about it.

do all the 1st round losers have to wait another couple of years for their next game? how many games would GB have to play if they went and won the tournament? and have GB ever won it before?

Answer 1

Davis Cup is a team competition. There will be five matches played.
2 singles (day 1)
1 double (day 2)
2 singles (day 3)
All matches are played best of five and no tie-breaker in the final set (IIRC).
Coaching is allowed (playing or non-playing captain is at the players bench during the match)

The top league is called worldgroup and consists of 16 teams. The Davis Cup starts sometime in spring (February) and finals are played in autumn. Teams compete in KO system - meaning loser is out winner advances to next round.

First round losers from the Worldgroup play against the winners of the continental groups - the winners stay in/advance to the Worldgroup the losers have to play in the Continental groups - these matches are played in autumn as well.
Davis Cup weekends are protected dates by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) so that players have time for training there.

The home right (choice of ground) changes which each match between two specific countries. E.g. Country A : Country B have never played a Davis Cup match against each other - there will be a draw in which country they will play (lets say Country A) next time the meet each other they play in Country B, then again in Country A. It does not matter how much time there is between the matches.

GB advanced to the Play offs from the Europe/Africa group this year and won there against Croatia 4:1 this September and will be playing Argentine in February.

http://www.daviscup.com/

Answer 2

You play four singles matches and one doubles. whoever wins 3 out of 5 matches wins. first day is singles. your top two singles guys play against the other countries top 2 singles guys. #1 vs #1 and #2 vs #2. day 2 is doubles. day three is reverse singles. #1 vs #2 and #2 vs #1.

obviously some countries can't legitimately hope to compete with others. the united states versus morocco just wouldn't be fair. so they have different groups (skill levels) for various countries. countries like the united states, russia, sweden, australia, etc are in the top tier. countries such as the UK are in the 2nd tier....they can win some big matches and work their way up to the top tier.

this way a small country (like morocco) can still compete (in the lowest tier) against other smaller tennis playing nations.

yes, all first round losers have to wait another year to compete....but the athelets have plenty of other tennis to worry about. davis cup is about national pride....you get no ATP points for playing....so sometimes the top players won't play....all the fatigue of a bit match and the potential for injury without gaining any points ranking-wise is a little disconcerting for a lot of the top players.

Answer 3

the davis cup its played in a divison mode, like in football, but with the diference that it's divided in a geographical way, calling each division, group. these are:

Americas
Europe/Africa
Asia/Oceania

each group has many divisions, so for example, the netherland antilles are in the Americas Zone III. When a team wins the zone I qualifies to the World Group playoffs. In the World Group the best teams of each zone play each other. There are 16 teams in the World Group and the ones who loose on the first round have to play against the winners of the zones to stay in the world group. if the one who was defending its position in the world group wins stays and plays again next year. if it losses it will play in its geographic zone, letting the other play in its position.

So to win the Davis Cup, you have to qualify and the next year win 4 ties, first round, quarterfinals, semifinals, and the final. if a team losses in the quarters or semis it will remain in the world group for the next year, and will be a seeded team, avoiding playing against another team who reached quarters this year.

Great Britain has won it 9 times, in the years 1903, 1904, 1905, 1906, 1912, 1933, 1934, 1935 and 1936. The team with more Davis Cups is the United States with 31, with the last victory in 1995.

GB has also been runner up 8 times, the last in 1978.

Answer 4

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Answer 5

No, I can't explain. I doubt the players themselves know. There are regional levels and then, if you do well enough, you go up to world levels.