|
Russia was banned from defending its Davis Cup
and Billie Jean King Cup titles following its Feb. 24 invasion
of Ukraine.
Belarus, a key staging area for the invasion, which Russia says
is a "special operation", has also been banned from the
international team competitions.
The Australian team were the highest ranked side among the
losing semi-finalists in 2021 and will take Russia's automatic
spot in this year's Finals of the tournament formerly known as
the Fed Cup.
Slovakia, who were scheduled to play Australia in next month's
qualifiers for the women's team event, will get a bye and also
advance directly to the 2022 Finals, scheduled to be held in
November.
Also advancing to the Finals - for which the host country has
yet to be named - will be Belgium, after its side received a
walkover in the qualifiers due to Belarus' suspension.
The three sides will be joined by the host, last year's
runner-up Switzerland and the remaining seven winners of the
qualifiers on April 15-16.
In the men's Davis Cup, also won last year by a Russian team led
by top-ranked Daniil Medvedev, Serbia was awarded the automatic
spot as the highest-ranked losing semi-finalist.
A wild card for the 2022 Finals that was previously awarded to
Serbia will be handed to one of the 12 nations knocked out in
the qualifiers earlier this month.
The 12 winning teams from the qualifiers, 2021 finalists Croatia
and wild card Britain are the other confirmed sides for the 2022
Finals, which will see 16 nations competing in four groups
across four cities from Sept. 14-18.
The top eight teams will advance to the knockout stages, which
will serve as the season-ending event on the men's tennis
calendar and will be held from Nov. 23-27 in a fifth host city.
The host cities for the Davis Cup competition also have not yet
been named.
(Reporting by Sudipto Ganguly in Mumbai; Editing by Kim Coghill
and Tom Hogue)
[© 2022 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content. |
|
