Davis Cup

Watch Davis Cup and don’t miss out on the biggest tennismatches in the world.
Davis Cup is the most prestigious men’s tournament for tennis teams. This is why the tournament is also often called the unofficial world championships in tennis. It is not often that the best players from each nation gets the opportunity to play with each other, so the annual Davis Cup battles are something to look forward to.

The beginnings

The tournament was first held back in 1900 as a duel between Great Britain and America. Today 130 countries participate in Davis Cup, there is a sort of elimination tournament as it is common in other sports tournaments.
Davis Cup is named after a person, who invented nearly everything within tennis. Back in 1899 Dwight F. Davis went to Harvard University and, along with three other tennis players, got the idea to challenge a team from the UK. Davis made a prize of his own money and made a tournament structure. He later went on to pursue a career as a politician and was among other things Minister of Defense in the United States, but today it is as the founder of the Davis Cup that most people remember Dwight F. Davis.

American dominance

The first tournament was won by the US team, and it is also the United States, which more than 100 years later has taken the trophy back most times. Followed by Australia, which throughout the 1950s and 1960s was sitting on the tennis throne. But the team was a major power all the way through the 1970s, where one of the lead players was Rod Laver, which today gives name to the stadium in Melbourne, where the Australian Open is held, a tournament he won both as singles and doubles.

But throughout the 90s the US started getting more wins. This was partly due to having strong players such as Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras and Michael Chang in the teams.