Formerly known as the International Lawn Tennis Challenge, the Davis Cup was the brainchild of the Harvard University tennis team, who challenged Great Britain (then the British Isles) to a tennis competition. Upon receiving approval from the US Lawn Tennis Association and their British counterparts, the inaugural edition of the event took place in 1900 in Boston, Massachusetts; and so tennis’ premier team event was born.
The present day format
The competition got its present-day name from Dwight Davis, one of the original creators of the event who is credited with designing the tournament's format and acquiring the sterling silver trophy with his own resources.
Initially just a bilateral event between Great Britain and the US, the Davis Cup expanded in 1905 to include France, Austria, Belgium and Australasia (a combination of Australia and New Zealand until 1914). Come 2014, a total of 142 nations have taken part in the Davis Cup at one time or the other.
The top 16 teams in the world compete in the World Group, while the remaining nations are categorised according to their regional zones — Americas, Europe/Africa and Asia/Oceania — and then sub-divided into groups — the first two zones have three groups and the last one four — depending on their level of performance.
Teams in the World Group play a four-round elimination tournament, their seeding based on a ranking system released by the International Tennis Federation, taking into account previous years’ results. The losers of the first-round matches are sent to the World Group play-off round, where they play along with winners from Group I of the regional zones and the play-off round winners play in the World Group for next year's tournament.
The competition itself is spread over four weekends during the year. Each elimination round between competing nations is held in one of the countries, and is contested across five matches with four singles and one doubles match.
The Davis Cup trophy can only be lifted by the winner of the World Group; the other nations are either promoted or relegated, according to the results of their regional ties.
So far, the US is the most successful side with 32 wins to their name, followed by Australia on 28. However, the rest of the pack is significantly behind the duo, as Great Britain and France are joint third with nine wins each.
Pakistan in the Davis Cup
Pakistan are currently placed in Group Two of the Asia/Oceania Zone and were on the brink of being promoted to Group One this year, but unfortunately lost out to Thailand 4-1 in the final tie.
Samir Iftikhar won the only match for his country in September; a dead rubber after Thailand had swept all the previous four matches to ensure victory.
The national team’s best performance came in 2005 when they reached the World Group play-offs. They also came agonisingly close back in 1984, falling at the final hurdle to Japan.
With a total of 55 wins — 33 in singles and 22 in doubles — and 25 losses, Aisamul Haq Qureshi remains Pakistan’s most successful player at the Davis Cup
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