The Davis Cup is the biggest international team event in Tennis. Contested annually, the tournament is the ‘World Cup of Tennis’ with national pride on stake for many at the end of the ATP tour.
Starting in 1900, originally as a contest between Britain and the US, the tournament has seen many winners over the years, with the first being the USA. Now it is a tournament which starts with 155 teams and gets whittled down to November's Final 8 that compete across a week to crown the year's champions.
Italy are the reigning champions but will have stiff competition to retain the title. In 2025, the final eight consist of France, Belgium, Italy, Austria, Spain, Czechia, Argentina and Germany.
Below, we look at the history of the winners and some fun statistics from over a century of the Davis Cup.
Davis Cup: A Brief History
There have been 113 Davis Cups since it started in 1900. By 1905, the tournament expanded to more than just Great Britain and the USA, including Belgium, Austria, France and a combined Australia and New Zealand team competing as Australasia. The format was originally a challenge cup competition, with teams playing one another for the right to face the winner of the previous tournament.
In 1972, the competition adopted the knockout format, and then in 1981, the tiered system, more like we know now, was introduced with groups. In 2019, the format was altered to a single, season-ending event in one location, but in 2025, this was changed again so that the qualifying rounds happened throughout the year, with the finals returning to have the top seven teams and the host nations compete over a week in November.
Davis Cup Winners: All Time
Now onto the winners. There have been a total of 16 different winners of the Davis Cup, with one team standing above the rest. The country with the most wins is the USA, having notched 32 wins since 1900.
The next most successful team is Australia/Australasia, who have 28 victories to its name, followed by Great Britain and France with 10. Of course, these stats are from the inception of the tournament, which did not include all nations (as we said above) or all players.
Davis Cup Winners from 1972
The Open Era started in 1968, when professional players were first allowed to compete in the major tournaments alongside amateurs. Professional players were only included in the Davis Cup from 1973, which saw a shift in the balance of winners
The USA are still the most successful, winning nine titles; however, now they are followed by Sweden, who have seven, all coming since 1975. Players like Bjorn Borg, Stefan Edberg and Mats Wilander all have their part to play in these successes.
Third on the list are Spain, who have won all theirs since 2000. The six they have make them the most successful nation of the 21st Century in the Davis Cup. One name is synonymous with this, and that is Rafa Nadal, who won four of those titles. Australia also have six titles.
Whilst Great Britain are joint third on the overall list, they have only won one Davis Cup in the Open Era and that was in 2015, spearheaded by Andy Murray. France are fifth on that list, having won four.
The most successful nation in recent memory are the reigning champions, Italy. They are back-to-back winners, winning in 2023 before the 2024 success. World number one Jannik Sinner has been instrumental in those wins.
Other Davis Cup winners
Five nations have won the Davis Cup once, all since 1972. South Africa won in 1974, but only because India, their final opponents, refused to travel to South Africa due to their government’s opposition to apartheid.
Serbia won in 2010 with the great Novak Djokovic, and another great, Roger Feder, won with Switzerland in 2015. Argentina won their only Davis Cup in 2016 and Canada in 2022.
Three nations have won the title three times, being West Germany/Germany, Russia and Czechoslovakia/Czech Republic. The final country to win the Davis Cup is Croatia, who have won twice.
Individual Davis Cup winners
Despite being a team competition, there are some individuals who have won numerous titles over the years. Roy Emerson (Australia) won eight editions of the Davis Cup between 1959 and 1967.
Whilst that is the most any individual player has won, five men have won seven Davis Cup titles. Another Australian, Neale Fraser, won seven and four of those were with Emerson. The other four are all Americans: William Johnston, Stan Smith, Bill Tilden and Richard Norris Williams.
Other multiple title winners are Rod Laver (five titles), John McEnroe (five), and Rafael Nadal (four).