DAVIS CUP FACTS and FIGURES Semifinals and Play-Offs, 18-20 September 2015
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DAVIS CUP FACTS AND FIGURES Semifinals and play-offs, 18-20 September 2015 OVERVIEW Davis Cup by BNP Paribas is the World Cup of Tennis and the largest annual international team competition in sport. A total of 126 nations have entered the competition in 2015. Over 550 players will take part in the 2015 event, which will see over 80 ties held in around 60 countries. TIES This weekend sees the two World Group semifinals and eight World Group play-off ties in the 2015 Davis Cup by BNP Paribas. In addition, there are eight other regional ties this weekend (two in Europe/Africa Zone Group I, one in Americas Zone Group I, one in Asia/Oceania Zone Group I, two in Europe/Africa Zone Group II, one in Americas Zone Group II, and one in Asia/Oceania Zone Group II). World Group semifinals Great Britain v Australia, Glasgow (hard – indoors) Belgium v Argentina, Brussels (hard – indoors) World Group play-offs India v Czech Republic, New Delhi (hard – outdoors) Switzerland v Netherlands, Geneva (hard – indoors) Russia v Italy, Irkutsk (hard – indoors) Uzbekistan v USA, Tashkent (clay – outdoors) Colombia v Japan, Pereira (clay – outdoors) Dominican Republic v Germany, Santo Domingo (hard – outdoors) Brazil v Croatia, Florianopolis (clay – outdoors) Poland v Slovakia, Gdynia (hard – indoors) The two semifinal winners will compete in the World Group Final on 27-29 November. The eight play-off winners will contest the 2016 World Group, while the eight play-off losers will take part in their respective Zone Group I in 2016. In the final, Belgium would be at home to Great Britain or Australia, while Argentina would be away to Great Britain or Australia. The final venue is expected to be confirmed by the beginning of October. 2016 DRAW The 2016 Davis Cup by BNP Paribas Draw will be held at the ITF AGM in Santiago, Chile on Wednesday 23 September at 19:00 local time (22:00 GMT). The seeds will be announced on Monday 21 September and based on the new ITF Davis Cup Nations Ranking of 21 September. The draw will be live streamed on www.daviscup.com. There are still further play-off ties to be played in both Americas Zone Group I and Europe/Africa Zone Group I in October. An announcement will be made on Monday 21 September on whether the draws for 2016 Americas Zone Groups I and II, and Europe/Africa Zone Groups I and II can be held on 23 September. SPONSORS The title sponsor is BNP Paribas, the Official Bank of Davis Cup. International sponsors are Rolex (Official Timekeeper), Adecco (Official HR Sponsor) and NH Hotels (Official Hotel). beIN SPORTS is the Official Global Media Rights Partner. CALENDAR DATES Davis Cup has fixed dates in the men’s tennis calendar through 2018, thanks to an understanding between the ITF and ATP. The first two rounds in 2015-16 will be played in March-July due to the long summer which sees an extra week in the summer calendar. 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 2015. The full list of the 333 players to have been honoured can be viewed in a dedicated Commitment Award section on the Davis Cup website (www.daviscup.com). HAWK-EYE OFFICIATING SYSTEM Electronic line-calling review has been used in all rounds of the World Group since 2012, and has been extended to the World Group play-offs in 2015. 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 this weekend’s ties in Belgium, Great Britain, Dominican Republic, India, Russia and Poland. DEAD RUBBER POLICY A dead rubber policy for all Davis Cup ties has been in place since 2011. If a tie is decided after the fourth rubber, and the fourth rubber lasts at least four sets, the fifth rubber will not be played. This is in response to requests from players, captains and federations, while maintaining the spectator experience on the Sunday. 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, and already used by over 60 nations globally. Building on the unique team nature of both competitions, Show Your Colours uses branding elements for promotion, in-stadium activities and all of the ITF’s website 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), plus the Davis Cup TV site www.daviscup.tv. The websites will feature live scoring, a live blog, reports, photographs, audio interviews and live streaming. There will also be a fan zone showing the best social media content on www.daviscup.com/showyourcolours. The websites recorded over 30 million page views in 2014. In addition, the competition’s social media properties in English, Spanish and Chinese have around 500,000 followers. TELEVISION Davis Cup will be broadcast on TV in all four semifinal nations and in all 16 nations contesting the World Group play-offs. Twenty-nine broadcasters will cover the semifinal between Great Britain and Australia. In 2014, there were over 7,500 hours of dedicated Davis Cup TV coverage by 63 broadcasters in over 150 territories worldwide. The ITF has signed a new 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 Over 600,000 spectators attended 82 Davis Cup ties in 2014. This included a record number of spectators for an officially-sanctioned tennis event with a crowd of 27,448 on the Sunday at the Davis Cup Final. ITF DAVIS CUP NATIONS RANKING The new ITF Davis Cup Nations Ranking will be published on Monday 21 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. Czech Republic is the current No. 1 nation. .