12 teams including the former winner Australia, Germany and Serbia have qualified for the finals of the Davis cup (compared with the football world cup in series of tennis tournaments) to be held in November this year in Madrid and will join four teams that contested the semi-finals last year — holders Croatia, finalists France, Spain and the United States — as well as wildcards Britain and Argentina, in the 18-team competition that has divided the tennis world. Although this time the format is new and this will be a challenge for the teams. Before speaking about the new format let’s take a little dip into the history of the tournament.
The Davis Cup owes its title to an American collegian Dwight Filley Davis, who started a tennis match between the USA and Great Britain. It took wings 1900, and it was touted as the International Lawn Tennis Trophy. It used to have a three-day format for the event that is still in practice: two singles on the first and third days and doubles match on the second day. Now, it is a team knock-out tournament played over the course of a year.
Initially, it was played only between two nations and has now reached to a number of 142. The top 16 ranking countries - known as the World Group - can actually win the Davis Cup. The others are split into three groups with promotion to and relegation from each. Their cynosure is to get an entry into the World Group.
THE NEW FORMAT- The following was the format of the qualifier played in February.
The total number of teams will be 24. Twelve teams will be the teams ranked from 5 to 16 as per the ranks of 2018 final events and 12 teams from group 1 where 6 are from Europe and Africa while 3- 3 from Asia and America. The 12 winners go straight to Finals in November while those who do not make it to the finals are relegated to Group I with ties to be played in either April/September.
Then comes the format of the finals to be played in Madrid.
It has 18 teams where four are the one which played the semifinals last year. In addition to that twelve teams that have come from the qualifiers coupled up with 2, wild card entries will play.
INDIA AND DAVIS CUP- India has failed to make its way into the elite World Group since they lost to Serbia (4-1) back in 2011. India started its journey in the Davis Cup in 1921. Amongst its 191 fixtures, it has won 114 and lost 77. Leander Paes has recorded the maximum number of wins (89). India has played the Davis Cup finals thrice in the years - 1966, 1974 and 1987.
The Indian squad that comprised of Ramanathan Krishnan and Jaideep Mukerjea in 1966 was defeated by where they succumbed to the dangerous Australians following their wins against Brazil and erstwhile West Germany in the prior rounds. In 1974, Vijay Amritraj beat the legendary Bjorn Borg, and Anand Amritraj also went on to collect two doubles titles. The Indian team of Vijay, Anand and Jasjit Singh guided India past some tricky fixtures against Australia and the Soviet Union to make it to the finals against South Africa. India was touted as one of the strongest contenders but refused to participate in the finals as a mark of disapproval of the South African government's apartheid policies.
