The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. The largest annual international team competition in sport, the Davis Cup is run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and is contested between teams of players from competing countries in a knock-out format. The competition began in 1900 as a challenge between the United States and Great Britain. In 2005, 134 nations entered teams into the competition. The United States is the most successful nation to date, winning 32 tournaments and finishing as runners-up 29 times. Australia is the second most successful, winning 23 times and finishing second 18 times and also participating in winning 5 times and second once with New Zealand under the alias 'Australasia'.

ITF Davis Cup Nations Ranking - Overview

A new ITF Davis Cup Nations Ranking was launched at the end of 2001 to allow nations to compare their performance against other nations in the competition. The ITF Davis Cup Nations Ranking is published following every World Group round. The ITF Davis Cup Nations Ranking is used as the sole criteria for seeding at all levels of the Davis Cup competition. However seeds one and two in the World Group shall be the Finalists of the year immediately prior to the year for which the seeds are being selected, and seeds 3-8 shall be in accordance with the latest Ranking. All nations competing in Davis Cup from the elite World Group through to Zonal Groups III and IV are ranked.

How it works

The ITF Davis Cup Nations Ranking measures the success of all Nations participating in the Competition over a 'rolling' four year period. After each round the ranking period adjusts and any results outside the adjusted four year period drop off.

Recent performance is weighted more heavily: points from the second, third and fourth year of the Ranking Period will be reduced by 25%, 50% and 75% respectively. Therefore, 100 points would become 75, then 50, then 25 over the four years.

Only winning teams can receive points to advance, and there are bonus points for any Nation that defeats a higher-ranked Nation. Unique to tennis, there are additional bonus points for any Nation that is able to win on an opponent's home ground. If an away nation wins a tie, it receives 25% of the round points and any rankings bonus points it receives for that tie in addition to those points. For example, if a nation received 10 round points and 10 bonus points for winning a tie, making a total of 20 points, if it had won away it would then receive 25% of this total (5 points) in addition, making a total of 25 points.

Davis Cup Rules:

Davis Cup Rules and Regulations 2008

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Davis Cup Home Page