History of Davis Cup and formation of ITF

History of Davis Cup
In 1899, Dwight F. Davis of the Harvard University tennis team designed a tournament format with the idea of challenging the British to a tennis showdown. The first match, between the United States and Great Britain was held in Boston, Massachusetts in 1900. The American team, of which Dwight Davis was a part, surprised the British by winning the first three matches. By 1905 the tournament expanded to include Belgium, Austria, France, and Australasia, a combined team from Australia and New Zealand that competed together until 1913.

The tournament was initially known as the International Lawn Tennis Challenge. It was renamed the Davis Cup following the death of Dwight Davis in 1945. The tournament has vastly expanded and, on its 100th anniversary in 1999, 129 nations competed for the prestigious Davis Cup..

Formation of ITF
From the roots of Davis Cup and the need to establish an international tennis federation, in 1913, twelve National Tennis Associations agreed at a Paris Conference to form the International Lawn Tennis Federation, which was renamed in 1977 as the current International Tennis Federation (ITF). The comprehensive International Lawn Tennis Federation rules promulgated in 1924 have remained remarkably stable in the ensuing eighty years, the one major change being the addition of the tie-breaker system designed by James Van Alen.



  Back to tennis facts