{"id":97262,"date":"2026-02-03T09:00:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T14:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=97262"},"modified":"2026-02-02T16:40:27","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T21:40:27","slug":"2026-davis-cup-round-1-qualifiers-feature-great-britain-against-norway-usa-vs-hungary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2026\/02\/03\/2026-davis-cup-round-1-qualifiers-feature-great-britain-against-norway-usa-vs-hungary\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 Davis Cup Round 1 Qualifiers Feature Great Britain Against Norway, USA vs Hungary"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2026 Davis Cup<\/a> begins with Round 1 Qualifier action from February 6\u20138, as nations across the globe compete for a place in the next phase of the tournament. With the tennis season still in its early stages, form, surface, and squad selection will play decisive roles.<\/p>\n

South American Nations Host Pair of World Group Ties<\/h2>\n

Chile will enter as favorites at home on clay when they host Serbia. The Chilean lineup is anchored by top-100 singles players Cristian Gar\u00edn and Alejandro Tabilo, with Nicol\u00e1s Jarry and Tom\u00e1s Barrios Vera providing further depth. Serbia counter with just one established singles player, Du\u0161an Lajovi\u0107, now outside the top 100. Captain Viktor Troicki will need to extract maximum value from his squad to guide Serbia into the next round.<\/p>\n

Also on clay, Ecuador host Australia with just one top-200 singles player, \u00c1lvaro Guill\u00e9n Meza, named in their lineup. Ecuador will hope altitude and familiar conditions can help level the playing field. Australia, despite fielding a \u201cB side,\u201d still arrive with significant firepower, led by top-100 players Aleksandar Vukic and James Duckworth. Even without their biggest names, the Australians appear stronger on paper.<\/p>\n

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Other South American nations are also in action. Peru travel to face Germany, while Argentina head to South Korea. The Argentine side, led by Marco Trungelliti, lacks depth and firepower, while South Korea\u2019s hopes rest largely on former top-30 player Hyeon Chung. Peru enter as underdogs, with Ignacio Buse their leading singles player, while Germany field an experienced and balanced team featuring Jan-Lennard Struff<\/a>, Yannick Hanfmann, and rising talent Justin Engel<\/a>.<\/p>\n

European Nations Set for Key Davis Cup Battles<\/h3>\n

Croatia, led by the ageless Marin \u010cili\u0107<\/a>, host Denmark, with August Holmgren headlining the visiting side. Great Britain, featuring Jack Draper<\/a>, returning to tennis, alongside Cameron Norrie, Jacob Fearnley, and doubles specialists Lloyd Glasspool and Julian Cash, travel to Norway to face Casper Ruud and highly rated youngster Nicolai Budkov Kj\u00e6r.<\/p>\n

Belgium, with Rapha\u00ebl Collignon and Alexander Blockx<\/a>, travel to Bulgaria, while Austria face a difficult trip to Japan, where Yoshihito Nishioka and Kei Nishikori lead the hosts. The Netherlands face a tricky test against India, spearheaded by Sumit Nagal.<\/p>\n

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Sweden, featuring Leo Borg, take on a Czechia side led by Ji\u0159\u00ed Lehe\u010dka and harboring ambitions of a deep run in the competition. Slovakia travel to face France, who will rely on Arthur Rinderknech<\/a> and Benjamin Bonzi.<\/p>\n

USA Travel to Hungary, Canada Host Brazil<\/h3>\n

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Hungary host Team USA on clay, with top-50 player F\u00e1bi\u00e1n Marozs\u00e1n leading the home side. The American roster includes young prospects Ethan Quinn and Emilio Nava as they look to navigate a challenging away tie.<\/p>\n

In Vancouver, Canada\u2014led by Gabriel Diallo\u2014host Brazil. The Brazilian squad arrives without a top-200 singles player, giving Canada a strong opportunity to advance on home soil.<\/p>\n

World Group 1 Qualifiers Span the Globe<\/h3>\n

World Group 1 action highlights the truly global nature of the Davis Cup. Switzerland, with J\u00e9r\u00f4me Kym and Leandro Riedi, face Tunisia and Moez Echargui. Hong Kong, led by Coleman Wong<\/a>, host Finland, while Portugal\u2019s Nuno Borges takes on a deep and intriguing Chinese squad featuring Wu Yibing, Shang Juncheng, Zhang Zhizhen, Zhou Yi, and Bu Yunchaokete.<\/p>\n

Bosnia and Mirza Ba\u0161i\u0107 travel to New Zealand, while Chinese Taipei host Lebanon. Alexander Bublik<\/a> leads Kazakhstan at home against Monaco, who feature Valentin Vacherot<\/a> and doubles specialist Hugo Nys. Israel host Lithuania, Egypt face Poland, and Morocco take on Colombia.<\/p>\n

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Elsewhere, Stefanos Tsitsipas<\/a> leads Greece at home against Mexico, Romania travel to Paraguay, and Ukraine face Luxembourg as nations across every continent chase Davis Cup progression.<\/p>\n

The road to Davis Cup glory starts far from the finals, in packed venues and unfamiliar conditions where rankings matter less than resilience. As the 2026 campaign opens, these early qualifiers will decide which nations keep the dream alive\u2014and which see their run end almost as soon as it begins.<\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit: Taya Gray\/The Desert Sun \/ USA TODAY NETWORK<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 2026 Davis Cup begins with Round 1 Qualifier action from February 6\u20138, as nations across the globe compete for a place in the next phase of the tournament. With the tennis season still in its early stages, form, surface, and squad selection will play decisive roles. South American Nations Host Pair of World Group […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1442,"featured_media":81307,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[282,2,166,9],"tags":[43538,41701,510,811,182,18099,913,11131,4224,13325,3010,50,304],"class_list":["post-97262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-davis-cup","category-featured","category-itfjuniors","category-news","tag-2026-davis-cup","tag-alexander-blockx","tag-alexander-bublik","tag-casper-ruud","tag-davis-cup","tag-gabriel-diallo","tag-hyeon-chung","tag-jack-draper","tag-jan-lennard-struff","tag-jiri-lehecka","tag-kei-nisihkori","tag-marin-cilic","tag-stefanos-tsitsipas"],"modified_by":"Steen Kirby","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1442"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97262"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97267,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97262\/revisions\/97267"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}