Málaga will host the most prestigious team competition in men’s tennis, the Davis Cup final, for the third consecutive year. During the tournament, one of the greatest champions in the history of the sport, Spain’s Rafael Nadal, will bid farewell to the court. Carlos Alcaraz, the current world number three, will play alongside him on the national team.
International tennis stars in Malaga
The Netherlands, Australia, the USA, Germany, Canada, Argentina, last year’s defending champion Italy and host Spain – this is the set of participants in the 2024 Davis Cup final. Neither the Italians nor even the Spaniards had an automatic guaranteed place in the final eight. The Davis Cup is the most prestigious team competition in men’s tennis. It can be called the unofficial world championships. A place in the final has to be earned, although the defending champions have it a little easier in qualifying.
The tennis elite will compete at the Palacio de Deportes Jose Maria Martin Carpena hall, located on the south-eastern edge of the city, next to the airport. More than 11,000 people will be seated in the auditorium. The venue, named after a politician assassinated by ETA in 2000, is where the Unicaja Malaga basketball team plays its home games on a daily basis.
The Palacio de Deportes will be the arena for the Davis Cup final for the third consecutive year. Last year, the Spanish national team was missing in Malaga, as they dropped out at an earlier stage of the competition. Italy, however, defeated Australia in the final, with Novak Djokovic then appearing on the Costa del Sol. This time Serbia did not qualify for the final, so we won’t get to see this champion in Malaga – but there will be other stars.
Davis Cup – what are the rules and who plays in it?
Five matches (called rubbers) are played in each round: two singles matches, then a doubles (double game), and then another two singles games, during which players swap opponents from their first matches. The doubles can involve the same players as in the initial singles games, two other players or a combination of these. As in men’s tennis or volleyball, the clash can end early if one team wins three times – in this case not in sets but rubbers.
The Davis Cup takes place every year, with the final being the closing event of the season. The 16 teams in the world group have the opportunity to play in it. The composition of the group varies, with the possibility of promotion and relegation. The 16 compete in four tournaments as direct qualifiers to the Final Eight – four teams in each. The best two from each tournament make the Final Eight.
The name of the tournament is a tribute to one of its originators, Dwight Davis, a player on the American Harvard University tennis team. It was he who devised the rules of the tournament and then – in 1900. – bought the cup, which is still awarded to the winners today, with his own money. This was also when the tournament was held for the first time.
Spain have triumphed in the entire competition on as many as six occasions, the last time being in 2019 when they beat Canada in the final. The Polish national team has never reached the Davis Cup final eight.
Farewell to Rafael Nadal
Tickets for the Spaniards’ opening match of the tournament have long since sold out, as have tickets for other clashes in which the hosts may feature – including the final. Spanish media are reporting that ticket holders are offering to resell them for… up to €50,000! These are, of course, isolated cases; second-hand ticket prices start at around €1,500.
The price frenzy stems from the fact that the November tournament will be the farewell appearance of one of the greatest legends in tennis history, Rafael Nadal. The Spaniard has 22 Grand Slam tournament victories to his credit. In the French Open alone, he has triumphed as many as 14 times. In 2008, he became Olympic champion in singles play and also won a gold medal in doubles. Many experts consider him to be the most accomplished court specialist in history.
When the 38-year-old announced the end of his career at the beginning of October, the topic did not leave the headlines for days. An additional flavour of the November contest in Malaga will be the symbolic changing of the guard in Spanish tennis. Alongside Nadal on the Spanish national team will be 21-year-old Carlos Alcaraz, the current world number three and two-time Wimbledon triumpher. List leader Jannik Sinner of Italy will also be in Malaga.
Davis Cup 2024 – schedule
The rivalry in Malaga will be inaugurated by the clash between the Spaniards and the Dutch. This match will kick off on Tuesday, 19 November, at 5 p.m. The following day, Germany will face the Canadians. On the following two days, the two remaining quarter-finals will be played: USA-Australia and Italy-Argentina.
The semi-final matches are scheduled for Friday and Saturday, 22 and 23 November respectively. If the Spaniards beat the Dutch, and they are placed as favourites, they will compete against the better of the Germany-Canada pairing in Friday’s clash. The grand final will take place on Sunday, 24 November, at 4pm.
Tickets for matches in which the hosts will or could play are already sold out. On the organiser’s website, however, tickets are still available for other matches, including Saturday’s semi-final – which the Spanish will definitely not be playing in. Prices start at just €40.
Success for Polish women in the Billie Jean King Cup
The Poles will not play in the Davis Cup, but just before its start in Malaga, we could watch live the showdown of the most popular Polish woman connected with tennis. We are, of course, talking about Iga Świątek. The Billie Jean King Cup, the female equivalent of the Davis Cup, is being played from 13-20 November at the Palacio de Deportes.
The Polish national team, with Świątek as a member, not only participated in this tournament, but also achieved a historic success. For the first time in history, Polish women tennis players managed to reach the semi-finals of this prestigious tournament.
In the 1/8 final, the Red-Whites defeated the hosts’ representatives 2:0. Świątek and Magda Linette won their singles matches, while the doubles match was cancelled due to the protracted earlier clash. The quarter-final clash with the Czechs started with Magdalena Fręch’s defeat. The Poles levelled the contest thanks to Świątek, who triumphed in singles play. The final result of the entire match was thus decided in doubles. Our leader and Katarzyna Kawa defeated their rivals without losing a set.
For the final, the Poles played against the Italians. This clash went similarly to the duel with the Czechs. It started with a defeat in singles – this time suffered by Magdalena Fręch. Later, the reliable Iga won her match against her rival and it was 1:1. In the decisive doubles clash Świątek and Kawa lost to the Italian duo 5:7, 5:7. The match had a dramatic course. In the first set, the Polish women wasted three set points, in the second set they were already leading by 5:1 and still could not cope with their favoured opponents. An unsatisfied feeling remained, although being in the best four is still a fantastic result.
The final will be played on Wednesday at 17:00, with the Italian women facing the winners of Tuesday’s Great Britain-Slovakia duel.
Swiatek, who has mentioned many times that Rafael Nadal was her idol, will not be staying in Malaga to watch the great champion’s farewell to the court live. However, at the post-match conference with Spain, she assured that she would follow his last matches online. She also revealed that she managed to speak to Nadal face-to-face just before the clash with the home team.
