Davis Cup Betting / Barry Millns / 05 March 2009 / Leave a comment

For those of us who find the notion of team tennis a little hard to comprehend, Barry Millns provides some fascinating facts and shrewd pointers for Davis Cup punters.

When Harvard student Dwight Davis commissioned the Davis Cup trophy 110 years ago, he could not have foreseen that the event named after him would become the largest annual international team competition in sport. First contested in 1900 between just two nations, the United States and the British Isles, there are now 125 countries entered in this year's event.

The World Group, originated in 1981, is the pinnacle of the Davis Cup with the top 16 nations playing in a knock-out format, leading to the final in late November. The remaining nations compete in Groups I to IV, divided across three regional zones: Europe/Africa, Americas and Asia/Oceania, and aim to win promotion and avoid relegation.

The successful nations in Group I of these regional zones join the eight World Group first round losers in the World Group Play-offs. The winners go on to compete in the subsequent year's World Group, while the losers return to zonal competition.

One of the Davis Cup's main strengths is the simplicity of its unchanged format - the best of five matches over three days, comprising two singles rubbers on the first day, a doubles rubber on the second day and then two reverse singles rubbers on the third day. All 'live' rubbers are played over best of five sets with no tiebreak in the final set.

A draw is held before each tie to determine which singles match will be played first between the respective No.1s and No.2s of the opposing teams. The respective No.1s (or their replacements) always face each other in the first reverse singles on the third day.

The ties are played on a home and away basis, so whoever hosted the previous meeting between the two countries (and chose the surface on which to play) has to travel away for the next encounter. If two countries have not faced each other before then the choice of venue is decided by lot.

Prize money was introduced in the Davis Cup in 1981 and the total compensation to the participating nations in 2008 amounted to more than nine million US dollars. This year will mark the first time that players in the World Group and World Group Play-offs are also awarded ATP ranking points for singles and doubles, accumulated across all the rounds with a maximum of 500 points available plus a bonus of 125 additional points on offer to a player who wins all eight live singles rubbers as well as winning the Davis Cup.

Over the past century, all the greats of the game have played in Davis Cup at some point in their careers. But such are the demands of the ATP World Tour and its jam-packed schedule that these days there tend to be a few absentees among the world's elite, particularly in the first round.

Having said that, while Roger Federer (back injury), Andy Murray (virus) and Nikolay Davydenko (foot) are all ruled out of this weekend's action, the world's No.1 Rafael Nadal and No.3 Novak Djokovic will lead their respective nations against each other in the intriguing World Group encounter in Benidorm between the defending champions Spain (currently trading at [1.16] to win it) and Serbia [6.0]. Even without Davydenko, Russia [1.15] remain the other strongest nation in the lower half of the draw and should prove too strong for their hosts Romania [6.6], while Sweden [2.7] host Israel [1.3] and Austria [2.2] cross the border into Germany [1.45].

In the top half, USA [1.02], the most successful nation in Davis Cup history with 32 titles, field their established quartet of Andy Roddick, James Blake, Bob and Mike Bryan, versus a Swiss side [16.0] missing Federer. The 2005 champions Croatia [1.05] will host Chile [9.2], Netherlands [28] visit last year's runners-up Argentina [1.02], while the closest tie could take place in Ostrava between a strong Czech side [2.46] and a visiting French team [1.6] brimming with the talents of Gilles Simon, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Gael Monfils and Richard Gasquet.

If France get through that then considering their last ties against the heavyweights Spain, USA, Russia and Argentina are all away, captain Guy Forget may not have a better chance of bringing the trophy back home with his 'Modern Musketeers', currently trading as second favourites in the outright winner market at [6.0] behind Spain at [3.25].