England lifts Davis Cup with Murray's win
Andy Murray won the prestigious Davis Cup bringing the Cup to England after 1936. He beat Belgium's David Goffin in Ghent. He recorded a 6-3 7-5 6-3 score to get a glorious 3-1 lead in the best-of-five tie. This is Murray's first Davis Cup and will add "to his other major titles at Wimbledon, the US Open and the Olympic Games."
Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. The idea was conceived in 1899 by four members of the Harvard University tennis team, who wished to challenge the British. The first match thus held between USA and Britain in 1900, was won by America. The tournament later came to be called after Dwight Davis, a part of the winning American team.
The women's equivalent of the Davis Cup is the Fed Cup, launched in 1963. Australia, the Czech Republic, and the United States are the only countries to have held both Davis Cup and Fed Cup titles in the same year.
Davis Cup is structured with a World Group, where 16-best nations contest over four weekends every year. The eight nations that win their World Group first round ties progress to play in the quarterfinals, semifinals and subsequent final, at which the winning team is crowned champion. All the eight first round tie winners are guaranteed a place in the World Group, the following year.
'Tie' in Davis Cup means an elimination round and 'rubber' means an individual match. All the rounds played in the World Group competition, from the first round to QF to SF to the final are called ties. Each tie consists of 5 rubbers. The winner of a tie is the nation which wins 3 or more of the 5 rubbers in the tie.
The five rubbers of a tie are played over three days. On day one, the first 2 rubbers are singles. On day two, the doubles rubber is played. On day three, the final 2 rubbers are reverse singles, where the first-day singles contestants swap opponents.
Nations not part of the World Group compete in one of three regional zones (Americas, Asia/Oceania, and Europe/Africa). Each of the three regional zones is divided into four groups, Group I being the highest. The losers of the first-round ties of the World Group play along with winners from Group I of the regional zones, to secure a place in following year's World Group.
The 2015 Davis Cup is the 104th edition of the competition which kicked off on 6 March. 16 teams, part of the World Group include Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Britain, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Serbia, Switzerland and USA. In 2015, 126 nations entered Davis Cup, making it the world's largest annual international team competition in sport.
The most successful countries of the tournament are the United States, winning 32 tournaments and Australia winning 28 times, including four occasions with New Zealand as Australasia. The present champion is Switzerland, who beat France to win the title for the first time in 2014.
Belgium will face off Great Britain in the Davis Cup final, set to be held on 27-29 November 2015. Beating Australia in the semis, Britain made into its first Davis Cup final since 1978. Andy Murray defeated Bernard Tomic 7-5, 6-3, 6-2 giving Britain the required lead to advance. Belgium on the other hand, reached its first final since 1904, beating Argentina.
Having lost to Serbia in the 2014 World Group Play-offs, India did not qualify for the 16-member World Group that competed in the Davis Cup 2015. Again in the 2015 World Group play-offs, India lost to Czech Republic, thus failing to qualify for 2016 World Group too.
