Frances Tiafoe withdraws from 2022 Davis Cup; United States begins competition Tuesday, what to know

The Davis Cup, which features some of the best male tennis players in the world, will get underway on September 13 but one of the biggest stars will not represent the United States team as Frances Tiafoe withdrew after his long run at the US Open. 

The Davis Cup is structured much like the World Cup in soccer.

A total of 16 nations qualified for the Davis Cup Finals in 2022. Each nation puts together a team of four or five male players who will compete in singles and doubles matches against players from other countries. They will compete in a Round Robin format during the group stage, each in a group of four, with the top team teams in each section advancing to the quarterfinals. 

Davis Cup Groups

The group stage will take place from September 13-18, and then the players will return to regular tour competition before the knockout stages take place from November 21-27. 

Davis Cup Schedule

• The Davis Cup begins on Tuesday at 10 a.m. ET and will be broadcast in the United States on the Tennis channel.
• The United States team will not begin in Wednesday, when they face Great Britain. They will then play again on Thursday against Kazakhstan. 

In 2021, the United States failed to advance out of their group, finishing 2-4 in catches and 5-9 in total sets. The 2021 Davis Cup was won by Russia, who defeated Croatia in the finals. However, Russia was not invited to compete in 2022 due to their invasion of Ukraine. Serbia was announced as their replacement, but star Novak Djokovic has decided not to compete for Serbia due to “personal reasons.” 

While Djokovic and Tiafoe will not be competing, the Davis Cup features many of the top 100 players in the world. Below are the full Davis Cup teams, along with the players ranked in the top 100. 

Davis Cup Teams (with top 100 players)

United States team

• Taylor Fritz (ranked 12th in the world)
• Tommy Paul (ranked 29th in the world)
• Jack Sock
• Rajeev Ram

Argentina team

• Diego Schwartzman (ranked 17th in the world)
• Francisco Cerundolo (ranked 27th in the world)
• Sebastián Baez (ranked 37th in the world)
• Horacio Zeballos
• Máximo Gonzalez

Croatia team

• Borna Coric (ranked 26th in the world)
• Borna Gojo
• Nino Serdarusic
• Mate Pavic
• Nikola Mektic

Italy team

• Jannik Sinner (ranked 11th in the world)
• Matteo Berrettini (ranked 15th in the world)
• Lorenzo Musetti (ranked 30th in the world)
• Fabio Fognini
• Simone Bolelli

Sweden team

• Mikael Ymer (ranked 98th in the world)
• Elias Ymer
• Dragoș Nicolae Madaras
• Jonathan Mridha
• Andre Goransson

Canada team

• Félix Auger-Aliassime (ranked 13th in the world)
• Vasek Pospisil
• Alexis Galarneau
• Gabriel Diallo

Serbia team

• Miomir Kecmanovic (ranked 33rd in the world)
• Filip Krajinovic (ranked 41st in the world)
• Laslo Dere
• Dusan Lajovic
• Nikola Cacic

South Korea team

• Kwon Soon-woo (ranked 74th in the world)
• Hong Seong-chan
• Nam Ji-sung
• Song Min-kyu

Spain team

• Carlos Alcaraz (ranked 1st in the world)
• Roberto Bautista Agut (ranked 21st in the world)
• Albert Ramos Vinolas (ranked 40th in the world)
• Pedro Martinez (ranked 67th in the world)
• Marcel Granollers