Serbia and Great Britain handed wildcards for the Davis Cup Finals 2022


Serbia and Great Britain handed wildcards for the Davis Cup Finals 2022

Great Britain's Cameron Norrie and Serbia's Novak Djokovic

With the finals of the Davis Cup Finals 2021 ending in a victory to the Russians against the Croatians in Madrid, the tournament has already announced the wildcard entrant for the next year’s tournament. The two nations receiving the wildcard into the Davis Cup Finals 2022 are this year’s semi-finalists Serbia and the quarter-finalists Great Britain.

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“Securing the number one in the world in our Finals, sporting wise, is the right call. It was a very, very tough decision to decide the second wildcard. Wildcards are for securing the best potential teams with some kind of threat of not qualifying, and we thought that having GB secured would be the right decision,” said Enric Rojas, CEO of Kosmos Tennis speaking with BBC Sport.

Great Britain was defeated by Germany in the quarter-finals that took them to a do-or-die match in March to qualify for the Finals next year but with the help of wildcard handed to them, the Brits are on their way to the Finals directly. Speaking on the wildcard, Great Britain captain, Leon Smith thanked the ITF and the Kosmos group.

“We are delighted to be awarded a wildcard by the ITF and Kosmos into next year’s Davis Cup finals. All our GB players love coming together for these weeks and are keen to have another crack at the trophy again in 2022,” said Smith.

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Serbia had made it to the semi-finals before being defeated by the eventual runners-up Croatia. Given their fantastic performances, they have also been handed the wildcard for the next year’s tournament. “Novak and the Serbian team were extremely committed this year,” said Rojas on granting the Serbians the wildcard.

Davis Cup Finals 2022 scheduled to have the final match in Abu Dhabi

Russian Davis Cup Team with the 2021 Davis Cup Finals trophy
The victorious Russian Davis Cup Team with the 2021 Davis Cup Finals trophy

Despite protests from former and current players over taking the tournament to Abu Dhabi, the Kosmos group has not made any changes to their proposed plan of having the finals of the Davis Cup Finals 2022 in Abu Dhabi for the next 5 years with only the ITF’s approval pending over the proposed move.

With changes made in 2019 as well, the tournament is scheduled for 12 days where 16 teams will contest for the title where the Russian Tennis Federation will be looking to defend their 3rd Davis Cup title won in Madrid yesterday.

Also Read: “The best two weeks of my career” Daniil Medvedev elated after clinching the 2021 Davis Cup Finals

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