The tale of the FED CUP

The women’s equivalent to the Davis Cup is the Fed Cup, in which the players participate as a team representing their respective countries.

The concept for a women’s team competition was first brought up by Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman in 1919. Upon rejection, this idea was later picked up and pursued by Nell Hopman of Australia. It then took 40 years for the implementation of a women’s Davis Cup as it was finally launched to all nations as a way to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the International Tennis Federation in 1963. The first Fed Cup that attracted a total of 16 countries, was held in the United States and the home team emerged as the winner against Australia. But as an answer to that, Australia has won seven of the next eleven annual championships.

The competition was known as the Federation Cup till it’s name was shortened to the Fed Cup in 1995. As of now, the format introduced in 2005 is followed which incorporates an eight Nation World Group I and an eight nation World Group II that play both home-and-away matches over three weekends throughout the year.

Here are some records and facts about the Fed Cup that might be of interest to all the tennis buffs out there.

1. Australia, Czech Republic and the United States are the only countries that have held both the Fed Cup and Davis Cup at the same time.
2. 
   The United States have the most number of title wins at 17. 4 times in the 1960’s and 70’s, 5 times in the 1980’s, 3 times in the 1990’s and once in 2000. They have also been the runner ups 11 times, making them the most successful team. In their tenure, they have won six consecutive titles from 1967-1982.
3. 
   
   
   
   Czech Republic trails behind at 9 title wins, the most recent coming in 2015 in front of home support. They are also at the top of the rankings as of 16 November, 2015 ahead of Russia by a huge gap of 14,835 points.
   Australia has 7 title wins, all of them coming in the decade of 1964-1974. Other noteworthy performances include 10 runner-up positions. They have also made 8 consecutive final appearances from 1973-1980, the most by any country.
   Other teams that made an impact are Spain and Russia with 5 and 4 title wins as well as 6 and 7 runner up positions.
4. The game has seen people from two extremes in age participate. The youngest player being Denise Panagopoulou from Greece at 12 years, 360 days and the oldest player Gill Butterfield from Bermuda aged 52 years, 162 days.
5. 
   The longest-known tie in terms of actual playing time has been when France defeated Slovak Republic 3-2 in 2009 World Group play-offs in France that lasted 12 hours and 27 minutes.
   It is followed by the match between Argentina and Austria in the 2008 World Group II first round wherein Argentina prevailed 4-1 in 10 hours and 34 minutes.
   The third longest, just short of 4 minutes from the second, at 10 hours and 26 minutes is when Spain defeated Belgium 3-2 in 2004 World Group quarterfinal, tied with Italy prevailing against Australia 4-1 in 2011 World Group first round.
6. Four defending champions have lost their opening Fed Cup tie. The first is Germany that lost to Australia in 1993. Then USA which lost to Netherlands in 1997. This is followed by Spain losing to Italy in 1999 and the last coming in 2006 when Belgium won over Russia.

   

7. On multiple occasions, unseeded teams have flourished and made a mark in the Fed Cup. Germany, Australia, Netherlands, Russia, Belgium, Italy, Spain and Serbia have made it to the finals of Fed Cup once when unseeded. Italy is also the only unseeded nation to win the Fed Cup, 3-2 in 2006 against Belgium
8. There have been some really impressive singles as well as doubles performances in the Fed Cup. Sanchez Vicario of Spain has the best singles win-loss record of 50-22. Larisa Savchenko of Latvia has the biggest figures in doubles at 38-7.