Davis Cup

The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. The largest annual team competition in sport, the Davis Cup is run by the International Tennis Federation and is contested between teams of players from competing countries in a knock-out format. In 2005 134 nations entered teams into the competition.
Countries aspire to compete in the elite World Group of 16 nations which comprises four rounds of competition spread over four weekends during the year. Each World Group 'tie' between two competing nations consists of 5 matches (known as 'rubbers') carried out over the course of three days, usually Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. On the Friday, the first two matches are singles, generally between the two best available players of each country. A doubles match is played on the second day. On the third day, the final two matches are typically reverse singles in which the first-day contestants traditionally play again, but swap opponents from the first day's singles matches. If the tie has already been decided in favour of one of the teams, it is common for younger lower-ranked team members to play the remaining 'dead-rubbers' in order for them to gain Davis Cup experience.
The captain of each nation is able to nominate a squad of four players for each tie and he decides which of these players will compete in the first three rubbers. On the Thursday before play starts schedule of play is randomly drawn to decide the pairings of the nominated singles players in the first two rubbers. In the past, teams could only substitute final day singles players when the result of the tie had already been determined, but nowadays the rules allow teams to select any playing team member to play the last two singles matches provided that first day matchups are not repeated. There is no restriction on which of the playing team members plays the doubles match: the two singles players, two other players (usually doubles specialists) or a combination.
All rubbers are normally best-of-5 sets with the 4 first sets being using tiebreak, if a 5th set is played its long (as example 8-6). If a team has clinched the rubber before all 5 matches are played, any remaining reverse singles matches are shortened to best-of-3 sets. In the lower divisions usually best-of-3 sets are played.
The tournament was conceived in 1899 by four members of the Harvard University tennis team who came up with the idea of challenging the British to a tennis showdown. Once the idea received the go ahead from the respective lawn tennis associations, one of the four Harvard players, Dwight F. Davis, designed a tournament format and spent the money from his own pocket to purchase an appropriate sterling silver trophy. The first match, between the United States and Great Britain was held in Boston, Massachusetts in 1900. The American team, of which Dwight Davis was a part, surprised the British by winning the first three matches. The following year the two countries did not compete but the US won the next match in 1902. By 1905 the tournament expanded to include Belgium, Austria, France, and Australasia, a combined team from Australia and New Zealan that competed together until 1913.
The tournament was initially known as the International Lawn Tennis Challenge. It was renamed the Davis Cup following the death of Dwight Davis in 1945. Dwight Davis also became a prominent politician in the United States in the 1920s, serving as Secretary of War from 1925-29 and as Governor General of the Philippines from 1929-32.