ALL EIGHT countries set to contest the 2024 Davis Cup have been confirmed, with the headline being Spain breaking Aussie hearts on the last day of the tournament. Despite resting world number three Carlos Alcaraz as well as former Top 20 player Roberto Bautista Agut, Spain manage to defeat Australia 2-1 on the final day in Valencia to top Group B.

The home nation started off on the right note with a sensational come-from-behind win. That came off the racquet of Pablo Carreno Busta who fought back from a set down to defeat Jordan Thompson, a player who Aussie captain Lleyton Hewitt had rested up until the final tie. Despite Thompson winning the first set rather easily 6-2, Carreno Busta worked his way back into it and won in a third set deciding tiebreak, 2-6 6-2 7-6.

Luckily for the green and gold, Alexei Popyrin got the tie back on track with a commanding 6-4 6-4 victory over Pedro Martinez. Though Martinez would have the last laugh, joining specialist doubles player Marcel Granollers on the court to win 5-7 6-4 6-4 in the deciding tie over previously unbeaten pair Matthew Ebden and Max Purcell to seal the result.

Spain captain David Ferrer was over the moon with the result in front of a home Valencia crowd.

“It was amazing,” he said post-match. “The fight in all the matches. The important thing is the mentality, the attitude of the players. In sport you can’t win everything, but I am happy because they all tried their best.”

Though the match had essentially been a dead rubber with both teams beating France and Czech Republic in the opening two matches, it does mean Spain will take on a second placed side, while Australia will face one of the group toppers other than Spain in the quarter finals.

Across the tournament, Italy finished its Davis Cup Finals group stage on a high, defeating Netherlands to stay on top of Group A. In the most even group of the lot, Netherlands made it through with a win over Brazil enough to cement its spot in the final eight despite defeats to both Belgium and Italy.

In Group C, Chile defeated Slovakia on the final day to finish with its first win over the group stage. Unfortunately both nations had been swept 3-0 in their previous encounters with the United States and Germany. The day before, United States had won 2-1 to secure top spot in the group.

In Group D, Great Britain’s disappointing defeat to Argentina a couple of days ago proved costly, with the home nation in Manchester going down to Canada 2-1 and missing out on going to the knockout stage. Canada went unbeaten in the group, with Argentina finishing second and a wounded Finland only winning one match – a doubles – across the nine on offer.

QUALIFIERS

Group A: Italy, Netherlands
Group B: Spain, Australia
Group C: USA, Germany
Group D: Canada, Argentina

With the qualification process, the four group toppers are placed in separate quarter finals, with a random draw between two runners-up nations – B and C – to face one of A and D, and vice-versa. The Davis Cup quarter finals look like the below:

POTENTIAL QUARTER FINALS:

1 Italy
2 Australia/Argentina

3 USA
4 Australia/Argentina

5 Germany/Netherlands
6 Canada

7 Germany/Netherlands
8 Spain