Twelve interesting facts about Davis Cup
Davis Cup is the foremost international team event in men’s tennis, sanctioned by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and held against teams of players, with countries competing countries in the knock out rounds.
It is different from other tennis tournaments not only in format, but also in the following ways:
First held in 1900, The Davis Cup originally was a competition between Great Britain and the United States of America. But with time, it has come to include over 120 nations from all over the globe.
The women’s equivalent of Davis Cup is called the Fed Cup. Davis Cup was initially named the International Lawn Tennis Challenge. It was later renamed after Dwight Davis, who was a Harvard University student and member of the first US Davis Cup team of 1900. The cup itself is three and a half feet tall and weighs 323 pounds. Dwight Davis paid approximately one thousand dollars at
that time to have his name engraved on it, and it has been to every continent on the planet.
The Davis Cup trophy is the world’s oldest which has also been used as a champagne holder in Paris nightclubs as Boris Yeltsin (the first President of the Russian Federation) drank vodka from it. It had once been stolen in Peru while it was deposited in
a Melbourne bank vault during the World Wars. United States has won the Davis Cup more times than any other country, with 32 titles to its name. The U.S. also holds the record of most consecutive titles, 7 during 1920 to 1926.
Australia collaborates with New Zealand for the Davis Cup, and they play as Australasia. They have won the tournament 4 times with Australia’s second place record of 28.
The youngest player to compete at this tournament was Mohammed Akhter Hossain of Bangladesh, who was 13 years and 326 days old at the time of his competition. While, the oldest player has been Gadonfin Koptigan Yaka from Togo; he was 60 years and 247 days
when he competed. Up until 1973, only U.S., France, Australia/Australasia and Great Britain/British Isles had ever won the Davis Cup. But, this streak was broken in 1974 when South Africa and India qualified for the final.
The only victory South Africa ever had at the Davis Cup was in 1974, when India refused to play in the final in protest against the apartheid policies of the then South African government, thus giving the opposing team a walkover victory.
The tiebreak, made famous by the US Opens, was also introduced in the Davis Cup during 1989.
Davis Cup hasn’t been played in the U.S. since 1992, when Switzerland was defeated by America at Texas. U.S. has also been on the losing streak since 1995 with their last victory being the defeat of Russia at Moscow.
Tags: