THE Davis Cup and its unique format is often prone to some great comebacks, once-in-a-lifetime heroics and other great stories of underdogs prevailing against the odds. Looking at events just from the past 10 years, here are some of the best.
Murray goes it (almost) alone (2016)
In 2010, Great Britain, with only one top player of note in their ranks, was in serious danger of being relegated to the lowest division of the Davis Cup.
So, few could have predicted that the very same team found themselves in the final of the 2016 edition.
Andy Murray was at the time one of the world’s leading players, having already bagged three Grand Slam titles to go with two Olympic Golds, the second of which he won just three months prior to the Davis Cup final.
But there wasn’t much beyond him. His brother Jamie was a fine doubles player, but James Ward, Kyle Edmund and Dominic Inglot had low rankings and not much in the way of notable tournament wins.
Yet under the leadership of captain Leon Smith, they knocked out the United States, France and Australia en route to the final, having been underdogs against the first two of those. Unsurprisingly, (Andy) Murray was their main man in all those ties.
Going into the final, there were more challenges ahead of them.
Finalists Belgium were at home and specifically to negate the influence of Andy Murray, chose to play on indoor clay, his least favourite surface. To add to GB’s woes, they delayed their trip to Brussels by 24 hours amid security concerns related to the recent terrorist attacks in Paris.
But they weren’t to be stopped.
And that was despite Edmund losing the opening singles match.
But as had been the case the whole campaign, Andy Murray stepped up to the plate. He won his singles match, joined up with brother Jamie to win the doubles and then on Sunday went off and beat Belgium’s star man David Goffin to make it 3-1, meaning the fifth rubber wasn’t played.
It was the unlikeliest of wins.
Nagy Hungary for success (2016)
That same year saw a huge upset in the Davis Cup but of a very different variety.
Away from the dizzy heights of the World Group final, Hungary were playing Israel in the Europe/Africa Zone Group 1 encounter.
Despite being at home, Hungary, with no players of note in their ranks, were outsiders to beat an Israeli team with capable players with plenty of experience.
It ended in a 3-2 win for Hungary but that wasn’t the biggest story at all. Rather, it was about Israel’s Dudi Sela losing in five sets to Peter Nagy on the opening day.
Why was that so noteworthy? Ranked 89 in the world, Sela wasn’t exactly a superstar but the man who beat him that day was ranked considerably lower at…612!
Ragy only ever earned 82,000 USD across his whole career, never won an ATP tournament and his highest ranking was 409. But on the day, he was too good for Sela.
Bellucci downs Spain (2014)
A clash between Spain and Brazil at football would probably provide an extremely balanced contest between two of the world’s leading sides.
But this was Davis Cup tennis and as historically one of the strongest sides in the competition, with five wins at the time, Spain went into their 2014 tie with Brazil as strong favourites. And this despite leaving a few star names like Rafael Nadal at home.
It was a decision that would prove costly.
Roberto Bautista Agut got Spain off to the best start by winning his match; but that’s as good as it got for them.
Thomaz Bellucci was Brazil’s poster boy but there was no evidence of the pressure getting to him when he won his singles match against Pablo Andujar in front of his adoring home fans.
Marcelo Melo and Bruno Soares then won their doubles match and then it was back to Bellucci against Spain’s best player, Agut.
Again, Bellucci delivered, winning 6-4 3-6 6-3 6-2 to send the crowd wild and Spain scratching their heads.
Ward comes back from the dead (2016)
The year that Great Britain won the Davis Cup, 2016, saw a huge upset early on in the campaign.
In a first-round tie against the USA, GB’s James Ward was up against John Isner, ranked 20 in the world. Ward, ranked 111 himself, didn’t have a great record in tournaments but did have a reputation for upping his game when it came to the Davis Cup.
And so, it proved.
Isner had won the first two sets 7-6 and 7-5 and would have fancied his chances of closing out the match.
Isner, it should be remembered, was the biggest server in the world for the vast majority of his career and when he retired after the 2023 US Open, did so as the player to have served the most aces throughout his career, an astounding 14,470.
Coming back from two sets down against the world’s biggest server on the fast courts in Glasgow was always going to be a monumental task.
But Ward was up to it and went on to win the final three sets 6-3 7-6 and 15-13 in the decider in a match that lasted four hours and 57 minutes.
Great Britain went on to win the tie and as we know already, never looked back.
Canada win their first Davis Cup (2022)
On paper, a Canadian team made up of Vasek Pospisil, Felix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov didn’t look like a side who may be potential champions when they appeared at the 2022 finals, in the new Davis Cup format.
But after finishing second in their group to Spain, they played and beat Germany in the quarterfinals by 2-1 and by the same result against Italy in the semis to set up a final encounter with Australia. The Aussies boasted a strong side, including Thanasi Kokkinakis and Alex de Minaur.
But they were no problem for Canada. Shapovalov beat Kokkinakis in straight sets and then Auger-Aliassime did the same to de Minaur, meaning the third match didn’t need to be played.
Canada had won the Davis Cup for the first time in their history.
