Davis Cup Finals group stage to come to Manchester

Davis Cup

Tennis365
March 28, 2023

Manchester’s AO Arena will host a group stage of the Davis Cup Finals in September as confirmed by the International Tennis Federation on Tuesday.

It will be the first time that Manchester has played host to Davis Cup action since Great Britain played Romania in a Europe/Africa Group I tie at the Northern Lawn Tennis Club in July 1994.

Leon Smith’s Great Britain side will take on three other countries from September 12-17, with the draw taking place on Wednesday.

The three remaining Group Stage hosts will be confirmed at the ceremony.

The draw will be streamed live on the ITF YouTube channel.

Manchester will become the fifth different British city to host a stage of the men’s ‘World Cup of Tennis’ in the last 10 years, joining Coventry, Glasgow, London and Birmingham.

Next month’s Billie Jean King Cup play-off against France will be staged in Coventry as the Lawn Tennis Association has prioritised taking major tennis events to different parts of the country.

Destination

The @AOArena will host the group stages of the @DavisCup Finals

— LTA (@the_LTA) March 28, 2023

Britain signed a multi-year agreement with Gerard Pique’s Kosmos Group, which took over the running of the Davis Cup in 2018, to host a group stage, and that contract is continuing with the International Tennis Federation following the collapse of the lucrative deal.

The agreement required Britain to qualify for the group stages, which they did by defeating Colombia 3-1 away in February.

The 2015 champions will look to perform better on home soil than last September when defeats against the USA and the Netherlands in Glasgow saw them fail to reach the ‘Final 8’ knockout competition.

The draw will see the 16 competing nations drawn into four groups of four teams.Group winners and runners-up will progress to the Final 8 knockout stage in Malaga on 21-26 November 2023. The draw for the Final 8 will take place following the Group Stage in September.

Canada and Australia, as 2022 champions and runners-up, respectively, will be seeded No. 1 and No. 2 for the draw, with Spain seeded No. 3 and Croatia seeded No. 4.

The four host nations will be drawn in separate groups.

The 16 nations competing in the Finals have been placed into four pots. The four seeded nations are in Pot 1, while the remaining 12 nations have been distributed in Pots 2-4, according to the current Davis Cup Nations Ranking.

Leon Smith