Wimbledon has been the stage for many of Britain’s most memorable Davis Cup moments, including six of their 10 triumphs in the competition. With the event’s change of format next year, and following Croatia's victory on Sunday, Wimbledon.com takes a look back at the long history between the Davis Cup and the All England Lawn Tennis Club.
The Davis Cup started in 1900 as an annual one-off contest between teams representing the United States and the British Isles (the official name changed to Great Britain in 1913), but today it is sport’s largest annual international team competition. A total of 132 countries entered this year’s event.
Until 1972 the champions played only one match (the Challenge Round), on home soil, in defence of their title. The United States won the first Davis Cup in Boston and made a successful defence when it was next contested in Brooklyn in 1902. Reginald and Laurence Doherty finally secured Britain’s first victory in Boston in 1903.
The first Davis Cup tie to be played in Britain, in 1904, did not actually feature a home side. With the Americans unable for financial reasons to send a team, Belgium beat France in a play-off at the All England Club’s Worple Road home for the right to play the defending champions.
Britain beat Belgium 5-0 in the Challenge Round one week later. Frank Riseley became the first British winner of a Davis Cup rubber at Wimbledon, with the Doherty brothers completing the home team’s line-up.
The next three Challenge Rounds were also played at Worple Road. With the Dohertys still going strong Britain beat the United States 5-0 in both 1905 and 1906, but in 1907 there was a new champion nation as Australasia, comprising the Australian Norman Brookes and the New Zealander Anthony Wilding, beat the hosts 3-2.
It was six years before the All England Club staged another Davis Cup tie and it was again a defeat, the United States winning 3-2 in the 1913 Challenge Round. Seven years later Bill Tilden and Bill Johnston led the Americans to a crushing 5-0 victory in a semi-final at Worple Road.
In the ensuing years Britain’s home ties were staged at a wide variety of venues, including Folkestone, Felixstowe, Torquay, Manchester and Harrogate.
The Davis Cup did not return to Wimbledon until 1933, by which time the All England Club had moved to its present site at Church Road. Australia’s Jack Crawford returned to Centre Court one week after winning the gentlemen’s singles at The Championships, only for Fred Perry and Bunny Austin to lead Britain to a 3-2 victory. In the Challenge Round at Roland Garros two weeks later Perry and Austin were again the heroes as Britain ended France’s run of six successive Davis Cup triumphs.
The next four Challenge Rounds were all played at Wimbledon. Perry came from two sets to one down to beat Sidney Wood in the second rubber against the United States in 1934 and secured a successful defence of the title by beating Frank Shields 6-4, 4-6, 6-2, 15-13 in the fourth despite a back injury.
One year later Don Budge made his first Wimbledon appearance in the United States’ victory over Germany in the Inter-Zonal final on No.1 Court but was beaten in four sets the following week by both Perry and Austin as Britain won the ensuing Challenge Round 5-0. Three years later Budge would become the first man to win a pure calendar-year Grand Slam of the sport’s four major singles titles.
In 1936 Perry was again the home hero, defeating Crawford 6-2, 6-3, 6-3 in the deciding rubber on Centre Court. After walking off at the end Perry returned to survey the scene of his finest triumphs. Nobody knew at the time - except perhaps Perry himself – that it would be his very last match at the All England Club. He turned professional at the end of the year.
It was Britain’s last Davis Cup triumph for 79 years. A four-year reign as champions was ended by the United States in 1937 as Budge and company proved too strong for a Perry-less Britain in the last Davis Cup contest to be played on Centre Court. All future ties staged at the All England Club were played on No.1 Court.
The first post-war tie at Wimbledon saw Jaroslav Drobny inspire Czechoslovakia to a 4-1 victory in 1949 and it was not until 1963 that Wimbledon witnessed another home victory, with Mike Sangster and Bobby Wilson securing a 3-2 win over Sweden in which all four singles rubbers went to five sets.
There was more drama on No.1 Court in 1969 in the Inter-Zonal final. Britain had reached what was effectively the competition’s semi-finals by winning five ties that year, but finally fell to Romania’s Ilie Nastase and Ion Tiriac. Nastase beat Mark Cox in four sets in the deciding rubber.
One of Britain’s most memorable Davis Cup rubbers was played on No.1 Court in 1976. After Italy’s Antonio Zugarelli and Adriana Panatta had beaten Roger Taylor and John Lloyd respectively in the opening two singles rubbers, Lloyd and his brother David kept the tie alive by coming from two sets down to beat Panatta and Paolo Bertolucci 6-8, 3-6, 6-3, 18-16, 6-2. Italy, nevertheless, won both the reverse singles.
Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski played the singles rubbers in a 5-0 victory over Egypt on No.1 Court in 1996 but could not prevent a surprising 3-2 defeat to Ecuador on the same stage four years later.
In 2007 Wimbledon hosted the play-off that saw Britain return to the World Group for the first time for five years. Andy Murray, aged 20, beat 18-year-old Marin Cilic in five sets and Henman beat Roko Karanusic in three on the first day. Victory was clinched in the doubles as Henman and Jamie Murray beat Cilic and Lovro Zovko in four sets in the last match of Henman’s professional career.
After losing to Argentina in Buenos Aires five months later, Britain were back at Wimbledon in September 2008 to contest another play-off for a place in the World Group, this time against Austria. Andy Murray won both his singles rubbers, but Alex Bogdanovic lost his and Jamie Murray and Ross Hutchins went down in straight sets in the doubles.
That was the last Davis Cup tie Britain played at Wimbledon, though the famous trophy itself would make one more appearance there. Following their historic triumph over Belgium in the 2015 final, Britain’s captain, Leon Smith, led members of his team on a lap of honour around Centre Court during The Championships the following summer.