Serbia and Australia to replace Russian teams in Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup
Mar 14, 2022
London [UK], March 14 : The International Tennis Federation Board of Directors on Monday confirmed the process for replacing the Russian and Belarusian teams during the 2022 Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup seasons.
This follows the suspension of the Russian Tennis Federation (RTF) and Belarus Tennis Federation (BTF) from ITF membership and from participation in ITF international team competitions on March 1, 2022.
As 2021 champions, the RTF team had qualified automatically for the 2022 Billie Jean King Cup Finals. The ITF Board has confirmed that RTF's position in the Finals will go to the highest-ranked losing semi-finalist in 2021, Australia.
Consequently, Australia will not compete in the Qualifiers on 15-16 April 2022. Their opponents, Slovakia, will receive a bye and advance directly to the 2022 Finals.
Belarus were due to compete in the Qualifiers on 15-16 April 2022. Their opponents, Belgium, will receive a walkover and advance directly to the 2022 Finals.
Australia, Slovakia and Belgium will join 2021 runners-up Switzerland at the 2022 Finals alongside the winning nations from the remaining seven Qualifier ties in April and the host nation (to be announced).
As 2021 champions, the RTF team had also qualified automatically for the 2022 Davis Cup Finals. The ITF Board has confirmed that RTF's position in the Finals will go to the highest-ranked losing semi-finalist in 2021, Serbia.
As Serbia had been awarded a wild card for the 2022 Finals, the Davis Cup Finals Steering Committee will announce a replacement wild card nation (selected from the 12 losing nations from the 2022 Qualifiers, which were played on 4-5 March 2022) in due course.
That wild card team will compete alongside 2021 finalists Croatia, 2021 semi-finalists Serbia, wild card Great Britain and the 12 nations which recorded victories in the 2022 Qualifiers (Argentina, Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Kazakhstan, Korea Republic, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and USA) at the 2022 Davis Cup Finals.
The group stage of the Finals will take place across four cities in September before the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final are hosted at a fifth city in November. These venues will be announced in due course.
Belarus were due to compete in the World Group I Play-offs on 4-5 March 2022. Their opponents, Mexico, received a walkover and will compete in World Group I in September.
To ensure the correct number of teams will compete in both World Group I and World Group II in September, the highest-ranked losing nation from the World Group I Play-offs (Uzbekistan) will compete in World Group I; and the two highest-ranked losing nations from the World Group II Play-offs (China, P.R. and Thailand) will compete in World Group II.
