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The Australian Davis Cup team has landed in a difficult group for the round-robin stage of the 2024 competition.
London, Great Britain, 20 March 2024 | Leigh Rogers
Australia’s quest to win a first Davis Cup title in 21 years begins in Spain in September.
The official draw for the group stage of the 2024 finals was conducted in London last night, with Australia landing in Group B.
The Australian team receives direct entry into the 16-nation finals as a reward for reaching the 2023 finals. They will battle against host nation Spain, Czech Republic and France during this year’s group stage.
The round-robin ties will be played on an indoor hardcourt at Valencia from 10-15 September.
The other group stages take place in Bologna (Italy), Manchester (Great Britain) and Zhuhai (China).
Tournament director Feliciano Lopez declared Group B appeared to “be the strongest one”.
Spain boasts six top-100 players, including world No.2 Carlos Alcaraz, while France has great depth, with 10 men currently ranked inside the world’s top 100 in singles and four within the world’s top 50 in doubles.
Australia met the Czech Republic in last year’s quarterfinals, where they edged out a hard-fought 2-1 victory.
> VIEW: Davis Cup Finals – 2024 draws
The top-two performing nations of each group qualify for the knock-out stage of the finals, which will be played in the Spanish city of Malaga from 19-24 November.
Many of Australia’s top-ranked players, including top-10 star Alex de Minaur, have made no secret that chasing Davis Cup success is a major priority in 2024.
The Aussie team is determined to improve on runners-up finishes in 2022 and 2023.
“We are very, very close and it stinks like hell but, like I said last year in this same position, we’ll be back,” De Minaur said after a heart-breaking loss against Italy in last year’s final.
“We’ll get this. We’ve got a very, very strong future ahead of us.”
Matt Ebden, who recently rose to world No.1 in doubles, agreed.
“I really want to win the Davis Cup one day with the boys,” Ebden said.
“We’ve been in the finals in the past two years and we believe we’re getting stronger and stronger every year, so we’re really aiming to win it.”
Australia claimed its most recent Davis Cup title in 2003, when current captain Lleyton Hewitt led the team to a thrilling victory against Spain at Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena.
Find your way to play: Visit play.tennis.com.au to get out on court and have some fun!
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