Davis Cup Finals group stage will take place in Bologna, Glasgow, Hamburg, and Malaga International Tennis Federation (ITF) has confirmed.
The ITF continues to tweak the format of this historic team event. The 2022 Finals will see 16 nations compete in groups based in each of the four cities from Sept 14-18 with eight teams going forward to the finals from Nov. 23-27 in a fifth city which is yet to be announced.
Croatia, who gets an automatic place as last year’s finalist, will be joined by the twelve winning nations from the qualifiers held earlier this month and wild cards Britain and Canada, who lost 4-0 to the Netherlands in the qualifiers.
The ITF awarded the replacement wild card spot to Canada in place of Serbia who qualified automatically after Russia was banned.
The Russians will not be able to defend their title after the ITF suspended the memberships of Russia and Belarus following the invasion of Ukraine.
👋 🇨🇦 @TennisCanada
All 16 teams confirmed for the Group Stage in September 🙌#DavisCup #byRakuten pic.twitter.com/R0RKX13jdX
— Davis Cup (@DavisCup) March 17, 2022
The draw for the group stage, which will be played from Sept. 14-18, is scheduled to be held in London on March 31st. Last year’s Davis Cup Finals featured 18 teams and was held in Madrid, Turin, and Innsbruck with the final in Madrid.
The event, started in 1900, was controversially revamped from its traditional ‘home and away tie’ format in 2019 with an 18-nation Finals taking place in Madrid after the ITF did a lucrative deal with Spanish investment group Kosmos.
ITF President David Haggerty said the new format would help retain “traditional elements” of the competition and bring the action to more audiences.”
Britain’s Lawn Tennis Association said it had agreed to a five-year deal for hosting the group phase and that it would be taken around the country.
Glasgow will become the first British venue to host a Davis Cup tie since 2018.
“This is brilliant news for British tennis fans and we are thrilled to be bringing the excitement of the Davis Cup back home in 2022,” LTA Chief Executive Scott Lloyd said.
“We are keen to bring other events to this country and remain in the running to host the Billie Jean King Cup finals later this year.
