Davis Cup

09/20/2021 | News release | Distributed by Public on 09/20/2021 10:35

Davis Cup 2021: what does the rest of season look like?

After an exciting weekend of Davis Cup by Rakuten action, which saw 18 World Group I and World Group II ties take place around the world, tennis fans will be pleased to know that they can look forward to even more Davis Cup moments during the rest of the 2021 season.

The Davis Cup by Rakuten Finals will provide a fitting finale to the men's tennis season, with Madrid, Innsbruck and Turin set to host the world's best teams from 25 November to 5 December. But there are also four more home-and-away ties that will be played in November, as the competition format is slightly adjusted ahead of the 2022 season.

We break down what to expect in Davis Cup during the rest of this season:

Davis Cup by Rakuten Finals

The Finals make a welcome return after postponement due to the pandemic last season, with 18 teams battling to become the 2021 world champions. The 18 teams which qualified for the Finals in 2020 (the four semifinalists from 2019, two wild card nations and the 12 winning nations in the 2020 Qualifiers) will still compete at the Finals this year, with the draw remaining as published.

The Finals have expanded to an 11-day event in 2021, with Innsbruck and Turin also joining Madrid as host cities. Innsbruck and Turin both host two groups and a quarter-final each, with Madrid hosting the other two groups, two quarter-finals, the semi-finals and the final.

In 2022, the Davis Cup Finals will become a 16-team competition. Both finalists in 2021 will qualify automatically for the Finals in 2022. The remaining 16 teams from this year's Finals will join 10 nations from World Group I in the 2022 Qualifiers - from that pool of 26 nations, two will be selected as wild cards for the 2022 Finals, leaving 24 nations competing in the Qualifiers in March next year.

World Group I

After the 12 World Group I ties in 2021, the eight highest-ranked winning nations have advanced directly to the 2022 Qualifiers: Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Finland, Japan, Korea Rep, Netherlands and Slovakia.

The four lowest-ranked winning nations will compete in the Davis Cup World Group I Knock-outs - two ties played on a home-and-away basis on either 26-27 or 27-28 November. Those four nations are: Norway, Peru, Romania and Ukraine.

The winning nations in the World Group I Knock-outs will play in the 2022 Qualifiers. The losing nations in the World Group I Knock-outs will play in the 2022 World Group I Play-offs - as will the 12 losing nations from World Group I ties in 2021.

World Group II

After the 12 World Group II ties in 2021, the eight highest-ranked winning nations have advanced directly to the 2022 World Group I Play-offs: Barbados, Lithuania, Mexico, Poland, Slovenia, South Africa, Switzerland and Turkey.

The four lowest-ranked winning nations will compete in the Davis Cup World Group II Knock-outs - two ties played on a home-and-away basis on either 26-27 or 27-28 November. Those four nations are: Denmark, Morocco, Tunisia and Zimbabwe.

The winning nations in the World Group II Knock-outs will play in the 2022 World Group I Play-offs. The losing nations in the World Group II Knock-outs will play in the 2022 World Group II Play-offs - as will the 12 losing nations from World Group II ties in 2021.

The draw for the Davis Cup World Group I Knock-outs and World Group II Knock-outs takes place on Wednesday 22 September.