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  • Davis Cup: More than a century's worth of patriotism and pride

    11/17/08 9:53 AM | Kelli DeMario
    Davis Cup: More than a century's worth of patriotism and pride A quartet of Harvard tennis team members traveled west for a successful tour in 1899. Upon returning home, the group talked about issuing a challenge to the British. These informal chat sessions would pave the way for the creation of the Davis Cup.

    Once the two countries agreed to compete against one another, Harvard team member, Dwight Filley Davis, developed the match format. Davis introduced the coveted trophy as well- a beautiful sterling silver bowl, bathed in a pool of gold.

    Davis suggested a three-day competition, beginning with two singles matches played on day one. A doubles match would follow on day two, culminating with an additional duo of singles matches to be played on the last day. The plan permitted each team to designate only two players to compete in singles on both days, a rule that remains unchanged after more than 100 years.

    International competition between the US and Great Britain began in 1900 at the Longwood Cricket Club in Massachusetts. The American team captured its first trio of matches, with Davis winning in both singles and doubles.

    When the two countries met again in 1902, the US emerged victorious for a second time. A determined British squad returned the following year, defeating the Americans with the help of brothers Reginald and Laurie Doherty.

    By 1905, the International Lawn Tennis Challenge became a proper representative of its name. Expanding to welcome Austria, Belgium, France and Australasia, a blend of players from Australia and New Zealand, the ILTC was renamed the Davis Cup in honor of creator, Dwight Filley Davis, after his death in 1945.

    The ILTC initially employed a challenge round system, in which challenging countries engaged in an elimination tournament, the winner playing against the defending champion in the final round. After 1972, all teams, including the defending champions, were required to play in the tournament. Due to a surplus of countries eager to take part, the number of entries was limited to the top 16 world nations in 1981.

    The institution of the World Group pitted the best national teams against one another in an annual, four-round knockout format, with the finals played in late November and early December. Past World Group champions include Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, South Africa and the US. The remaining lower-tier teams battle in one of four groups, within three regional zones.

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Comments

Great read! Thanks for that.

remi , 11/17/08 2:46 PM


what a nice story - how it all began!

homos , 11/17/08 3:10 PM


fantastic! this is one article which wont be flooded with criticism..need more of this..loved reading it.

janhavi , 11/17/08 3:54 PM


The Spanish players are laughing about the tremendous jitter that Rafa created to the Argentine team because they chose to play on hard court (even though clay is their forte). Lopez said it's so strange cos they have ALL the advantages - home support especially..And when they learned that Rafa is not going to play they made the court a little slower than it suppose to be.They MUST win this or they will experience the MOST humiliating defeat in Davis Cup history.
They're all concentrating on ONE man. Rafa must have been really surprised of the intimidation that he imposes on the other players.

agf25agf , 11/18/08 12:08 AM



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