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DAVIS CUP FACT SHEET Semifinals, 14-16 September 2018

OVERVIEW by BNP Paribas is the Cup of and the largest annual international team competition in . The competition is 118 years old having been founded in 1900. A total of 133 nations have entered the competition in 2018. More than 500 players will take part in the 2018 event, which will see 82 ties held in 63 countries.

TIES The weekend of Friday 14-Sunday 16 September sees two World Group semifinal ties and eight World Group play-off ties take place in the 2018 Davis Cup by BNP Paribas. In addition, there are eight other regional ties this weekend (two in both Europe/Africa Zone Group I and Europe/Africa Zone Group II, and one in each of Asia/Oceania Zone Group I, Asia/Oceania Zone Group II, Americas Zone Group I and Americas Zone Group II).

World Group semifinals v , Lille (hard – indoors) v USA, Zadar (clay – outdoors)

World Group play-offs v , San Juan (clay – indoors) Great Britain v Uzbekistan, Glasgow (hard – indoors) v , Graz (clay – outdoors) v , Biel (hard – indoors) v , Kraljevo (clay – indoors) v , Toronto (hard – indoors) v , Budapest (clay – outdoors) v Bosnia/Herzegovina, Osaka (hard – outdoors)

The two semifinal winners will compete in the World Group Final on 23-25 November. The eight play-off winners are guaranteed a place as a seed in February’s Qualifying Round for the 2019 Davis Cup Finals.

In the 2018 Final, Croatia would be away to France or Spain; while USA would be at home to France or Spain. The final venue is expected to be confirmed by the beginning of October.

DAVIS CUP REFORMS In August this year, the ITF AGM approved reforms to the Davis Cup which will see the creation of a major - ending annual competition – the Davis Cup Finals – in a single world-class location, staged by investment group Kosmos in partnership with the ITF. The new format will be implemented from 2019 onwards, with 18 teams competing in round robin group stages before the best-performing teams play quarterfinals, semifinals and the final. The winning team will be crowned Davis Cup champions.

The 18 teams contesting the Davis Cup Finals will consist of the four semifinalists from the previous year, 12 winners of the Qualifying Round held in February and played on a ‘home-and-away’ basis, and two wild card nations. Ties at the Finals will be contested over three rubbers (two singles followed by a doubles) and all rubbers will be played as best-of-three tiebreak sets.

The teams placed 5th-16th will compete in the February Qualifying Round, alongside the 12 winning teams in Zone Group I, in the following year. The teams placed 17th and 18th will be automatically relegated to their respective Zone Groups.

Zone Groups I and II will continue to be played on a home-and-away basis, with Zone Group I ties taking place in September and Zone Group II ties taking place in either April or September. Zone Group I winners are guaranteed to advance to the February Qualifier Round the following year; the teams contesting the Zone Group each year will be decided following the February Qualifier Round and will be based on the Davis Cup Nations at the time of the draw. Zone Groups III and IV will continue to use the current one-week, round robin format.

All ties in the qualifying round and in Zone Groups I and II will be contested over five rubbers on two days – two singles rubbers on day one, the doubles rubber followed by two reverse singles rubbers on day two – and all rubbers will be played as best-of-three tiebreak sets.

For a complete explanation of the new format, visit the Davis Cup website: www.daviscup.com/finals

DAVIS CUP 2019 The 2019 Davis Cup Finals will be played in Lille, France or , Spain. Croatia, France, Spain and USA will be joined by the 12 winning teams from the 2019 Qualifying Round and two wild card nations.

The teams competing in the 2019 Qualifying Round will consist of the four losing quarterfinalists in 2018 and the eight winners of this weekend’s World Group play-offs – all 12 of whom will be seeded – alongside the 12 highest-ranked nations (6 from Europe/Africa, 3 from Asia/Oceania and 3 from Americas) on the Davis Cup ranking of Monday 17 September. The teams contesting in the 2019 Zone Groups will be decided after the Qualifying Round in February.

The draw for the 2019 Qualifying Round will take place at the ITF offices in on Wednesday 26 September.

Full details regarding the wild card process will be communicated to nations shortly.

2018 ZONE GROUP FORMAT Ties in Zone Groups I and II are using a two-day format and best-of-three set matches in 2018. The two-day format in Zone Groups I and II sees two singles rubbers played on day one, and the doubles rubber followed by the two reverse singles rubbers on day two. This ensures that all doubles rubbers remain live. Zone Group I relegation play-off ties will be played on Friday 14 and Saturday 15 September, with Zone Group II third round ties on Saturday 15 and Sunday 16 September. The World Group continues to use a three-day format and best-of-five set matches in 2018.

FIVE-MAN TEAMS Five-man teams were introduced for the World Group and Zone Groups I and II in 2018, and will remain in place for the 2019 competition.

FIFTH SET TIEBREAK The ITF introduced a fifth-set tiebreak in all singles and doubles rubbers in Davis Cup in 2016.

DEAD RUBBER POLICY Amendments to the dead rubber policy across the World Group and Zone Groups I and II in 2018 now mean that no fifth rubber will be played if the fourth rubber is decisive. In the World Group, only the fourth rubber will be played if the score is 3-0. The fourth rubber will be best-of-three tiebreak sets.

SPONSORS The title sponsor is BNP Paribas, the Bank of Davis Cup. International sponsors are Rolex (Official Timekeeper) and Adecco (Official HR Sponsor), while HEAD (Official Ball) is an international partner. beIN is the Official Global Media Rights Partner. Avis (Official Car Rental Services Partner) and DPD (Official Delivery Partner) are tie sponsors of the semifinal between France and Spain in Lille.

DAVIS CUP COMMITMENT AWARD The ITF launched the Davis Cup Commitment Award at the 100th Davis Cup by BNP Paribas Final in Prague in 2012. The award is presented by the ITF to Davis Cup players who have shown long-standing dedication to representing their country in this prestigious competition, with a minimum of 20-home-and-away ties or 50 ties at any level of the competition. The ITF, through its National Associations, will continue to make presentations to award winners at Davis Cup home ties throughout 2018, with one player, Austria’s , due to be recognised this weekend. The full list of the 352 players to have been honoured can be viewed in a dedicated Commitment Award section on the Davis Cup website (www.daviscup.com/en/players/commitment-award).

HAWK-EYE OFFICIATING SYSTEM Electronic line-calling review has been used in all rounds of the World Group since 2012. The system is only used on hard and grass courts.

ITF COURT PACE RATING The ITF introduced new rules for hard courts in 2008 to prevent the use of extreme court surfaces in Davis Cup. The ITF is able to establish the Court Pace Rating (CPR) of a court by measuring the effect of ball-surface interaction, with the CPR required to be within specific limits for Davis Cup. The ITF tests the CPR at selected hard court ties, with the pace rating category published on the Davis Cup website. There will be testing at the France v Spain semifinal tie in Lille and all four hard court World Group play-off ties this weekend.

SHOW YOUR COLOURS In 2014 the ITF launched Show Your Colours, a new fan-focused campaign to promote Davis Cup and Fed Cup as the world cups of tennis. The campaign acts as a platform to increase awareness of the competitions, help better tell their stories and drive engagement with fans. To date, the campaign has been used by over 80 nations globally at more than 350 events. Building on the unique team nature of both competitions, Show Your Colours uses branding elements and activation ideas for promotion, in-stadium experience and social media activity.

DAVIS CUP WEBSITE There are two versions of the official Davis Cup website, in English (www.daviscup.com) and Spanish (www.copadavis.com). The websites will feature live scoring, a live blog, reports, photographs, audio interviews and exclusive video content. The website recorded almost 15 million page views in 2017. In addition, the competition’s social media properties in English, Spanish and Chinese grew to almost 1 million last year.

DAVIS CUP LIVE CENTRE AND LIVE STREAMING The ITF, in partnership with Sportradar, launched a new live centre and live streaming platform in September 2017, offering enhanced coverage of the competition. Fans now have the ability to purchase coverage ranging from individual ties to a whole round of ties, or an annual package covering all rounds of Davis Cup. In parallel, a desktop live scoring centre and redesigned dedicated mobile app for Davis Cup was also launched offering more in-depth statistics across all ties. These features were also launched for Fed Cup in 2017.

TELEVISION Davis Cup will be broadcast on TV in all four nations contesting the World Group semifinals. There will also be coverage in all 16 nations contesting the World Group play-offs. It was a record-breaking year for Davis Cup by BNP Paribas television coverage in 2017, with the Final between France and shown in 167 territories. In 2015, the ITF signed a seven-year strategic media rights partnership with beIN SPORTS for Davis Cup and Fed Cup to increase the global exposure and quality of the coverage of both competitions.

ATTENDANCE More than 530,000 spectators attended 80 Davis Cup ties in 2017. This included more than 75,000 spectators at the Davis Cup Final between France and Belgium in Stade Pierre Mauroy in Lille.

ITF DAVIS CUP NATIONS RANKING The new ITF Davis Cup Nations Ranking will be published on Monday 18 September and will include results from the weekend’s ties. The Ranking, which is used for seeding at all levels of the competition, is published on the Monday following every Davis Cup weekend, and based on a nation’s performances in the competition over a four-year period. All competing nations from World Group through to Zone Group IV are ranked. France is the current No. 1 nation.