Davis Cup 2023 preview: Schedule, format, Great Britain’s chances v Colombia, is Andy Murray playing?

The Davis Cup has been a difficult competition to keep up with in recent years.

The format has undergone significant changes since the International Tennis Federation signed a 25-year, $3bn deal in 2018 with investment group Kosmos Tennis, which is fronted by former Barcelona defender Gerard Pique.

No longer are ties played on several weekends throughout the year to see who reaches the final. Instead, there are qualifiers (February 3-5), a group-stage week (September 12-17) and finals week (November 21-26). Matches have also been shortened to best-of-three sets and the home-and-away format has been scrapped in favour of playing the group matches and finals in different cities around Europe.

The future of the competition will no longer be overseen by Kosmos as it was announced earlier this month by the ITF that the 25-year partnership has been ended after five years, without providing details for the reasons behind the decision.

So what does the 2023 Davis Cup look like? Where are Great Britain playing and what are their chances of making the finals? And which top players are competing in the competition?

What’s the 2023 Davis Cup format and schedule?

The partnership with Kosmos might have ended but the Davis Cup format will remain unaltered this season. The ITF has said that it intends to run this year’s competition as planned.

“The ITF has ensured financial contingencies are in place, and as the custodian of the competition, we will operate the 2023 Qualifiers and Finals as scheduled, with the Final 8 taking place in Malaga, Spain, this November,” the ITF said in a statement this month.

“The ITF negotiated a strong deal for tennis in 2018. The partnership increased participation, prize money and interest in Davis Cup and produced funding to support the global development of our sport.

“As well as being focused on delivering another spectacular edition of the men’s World Cup of Tennis, we are focused on the future growth of the largest annual international team competition in sport.”

The competition starts this week with qualifying matches being played around the world.

The 12 winners from the qualifying matches will advance to the group stage in September, which takes place across four venues in Spain. From the group stage, eight nations will advance to the finals in November.

As well as qualifiers this week, there are also play-off matches for lower-ranked nations hoping to move up into the top tiers of the Davis Cup.

Each qualifying tie consists of five best-of-three set matches played over two days – two singles on the first day and then one doubles and two more singles on the second day.

The winner is the nation who wins three or more of the matches.

For the finals, the format changes as each tie is best-of-three matches – two singles and one doubles.

Davis Cup 2023 key dates

• February 3-5: Qualifying and play-off matches
• September 12-17: Group stages
• November 21-26: Finals

Who do Great Britain play?

Great Britain face a tricky test as they bid to reach the finals for a fourth year in a row.

After starting the season on hard courts in Australia, the team has travelled to Colombia and will play on clay, and at high altitude.

Great Britain have by far the stronger line-up on paper as they have three top-40 ranked singles players – world No. 12 Cameron Norrie, world No. 30 Dan Evans and world No. 38 Jack Draper – as well as two of the best doubles players in the world in Joe Salisbury and Neal Skupski. Colombia have quality in the doubles with two-time Grand Slam champions Juan-Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah, but their highest-ranked singles player is world No. 70 Daniel Galan, and they don’t have another player in the top 200.

The hosts will be hoping the conditions will help sway the tie in their favour.

“The most obvious hurdle is the altitude,” GB captain Leon Smith told the BBC.

“The altitude brings pressureless balls, which our players never play with. The ball is flying so much faster through the air so you have the need to adapt. Then you have the physiological elements as well, so it’s how people are going to react to the thinner air.”

Colombia v Great Britain schedule

• Friday, February 3: Matches start at 8pm GMT
• Saturday, February 4: Matches start at 5pm GMT

Is Dan Evans playing for Great Britain?

Smith, who has been in charge of Great Britain since 2010, said things are “fine” with Evans, despite him airing his views on team selection.

“I don’t ever question Dan’s passion for playing. He wants to win. Sometimes we get it right, sometimes we don’t. What’s happened has happened,” he told the BBC during the Australian Open.

“But we’re fine, me and Dan are fine. We’ve spent time here and we’re travelling together.

“I just want a good team spirit. We also want a team of winners, though. I don’t mind passion and people knocking on my door and saying ‘you got that wrong’ – that’s fine, that just goes with it. I’m literally thick-skinned enough to deal with this stuff.”

Is Andy Murray playing for Great Britain?

Murray spent more than 14 hours on court at the Grand Slam and is not part of GB’s five-man team.

Jack Draper could be set to make his debut for Great Britain in the competition.

What other top players are playing Davis Cup?

Two of the ATP’s top five will be in action this week.

Australian Open runner-up and world No. 3 Stefanos Tsitsipas is set to play for Greece in their home play-off tie against Ecuador, while world No. 4 Casper Ruud plays for Norway against Serbia, who will not have Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic in their team.

World No. 10 Holger Rune is in action for Denmark against India.

Dominic Thiem plays for Austria for the first time since 2019 against Croatia, who have a loaded line-up of Marin Cilic, Borna Coric, Borna Gojo, Mate Pavic and Nikola Mektic.

What are the Davis Cup qualifying ties?

• Colombia v Great Britain
• Croatia v Austria
• Hungary v France
• Norway v Serbia
• Sweden v Bosnia & Herzegovina
• Netherlands v Slovakia
• Uzbekistan v USA
• Chile v Kazahkstan
• Finland v Argentina
• Germany v Switzerland
• South Korea v Belgium
• Portugal v Czech Republic

Who has already qualified for the finals?

Last year’s two finalists, Australia and Canada, have secured their spots at the finals, along with Italy and Spain, who have been chosen as two wild cards.

They will be joined by the 12 qualifiers in the group stage in September.

Who won the 2022 Davis Cup?

Canada won their first Davis Cup title in 2022 as they beat Australia in the final.

The team was led by Felix Auger-Aliassime, Denis Shapovalov and Vasek Pospisil.