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When it comes to Davis Cup, several things can be true at once.

The first is that Davis Cup is almost an afterthought in the big picture these days; the neutral venues (and lack of crowds, in large part) at the top level mean that it’s basically off the radar. That’s especially true as it’s the week after the US Open.

The second thing is that the abridged format means that the best teams don’t always win. In best-of-five, the superior player prevails more often than not because there’s wiggle room to get past a slow start. And the home-court advantage can be a difference-maker.

Canada clinches spot in Davis Cup Finals

The third thing is that as much as the diehards mourn the demise of the old format, it wasn’t sustainable the way it was – notably with major sponsors. So something had to change. Not that the unfortunate Kosmos era (which was supposed to be its salvation and fill everyone’s wallets with lucre), was anything but an abject disaster.

The fourth thing is that the one-day format in the finals qualifiers, and the two-day format at the lower levels with best-of-three set matches, diminishes its gravitas even as it doesn’t make for 10-hour match days. And the fact that the top teams are playing one-day ties, while those at all the other levels in action this weekend are playing five-rubber, two-day ties just adds to the lack of consistency and causes confusion.

Demi-finale de la Coupe Davis 2000, à Santander, entre l’Espagne et les Etats-Unis. 🇪🇸 La photo est dingue.😍

📸 Via @racketbrand #tennis #tenniscourt pic.twitter.com/i7avWa0y4d
— Tennis Legend (@TennisLegende) September 14, 2024

The fifth thing is that a lot of people still care. And at the lower levels, where there are home ties, some vestiges of what it once was remind you that there really was nothing else like it in tennis. Magic could – and did – often happen.

But for the full house of nearly 16,000 for the Brits against Canada on Sunday, there were the … empty stands for Argentina’s big finals-clinching win.

***Argentina clinches a spot in the Davis Cup finals with a sweep against Finland. But save for a group of supporters behind the benches, it was pretty dire.***

It was hard to see all week, because the stands are in darkness. But it’s dire.

Without further ado, we scan across the action this week and weekend.

Djoko in the house in Belgrade

Not in the finals pool, Serbia vs. Greece was shaping up to be some serious entertainment this weekend in Belgrade with both Novak Djokovic and Stefanos Tsitsipas scheduled to take part in a Group I first-round match, with the winner advancing to try to qualify for the finals next spring.

Unfortunately, Tsitsipas pull the ripcord 10 days ago because of a back injury suffered at the US Open that requires a “special rehabilitation plan”.

He’s still in line to play Laver Cup next weekend, though.

Djokovic is there, after his disappointing US Open.

Davis Cup. Tim Srbija. Idemooo! 🇷🇸 pic.twitter.com/I5WL5SdXoe
— Novak Djokovic (@DjokerNole) September 13, 2024

And with Miomir Kecmanovic, Dusan Lajovic and young Hamad Medjedovic (a protégé of Djokovic’s and the beneficiary of his final support), the tie is going to be a Serbian exhibition no matter how much Davis Cup magic the Greeks can muster.

They bring a pair of 23-year-olds – Aristotelis Thanos (No. 713) and Ioannis Xilas (No. 770), along with Tsitsipas – Petros, a credible doubles player at No. 77 but without someone to support him.

It’s too bad, because the crowd will be right there like old-school Davis Cup; Djokovic hasn’t donned his country’s colours at home since … April 2017, in the same arena, in the old quarterfinal format against Spain.

Djokovic took care of Xilas 6-0, 6-1 in 45 minutes, winning 52 of the 68 total points. The Greek player did get an experience he’ll likely never forget. So there’s that.

Djokovic is in the lineup to play doubles with Medjedovic to open play Sunday, and then reverse singles. But we’d expect if they clinch the doubles, that will probably be it for him.

Who’s in, who’s missing?

In the Finals qualifiers, even if there are players missing, there also are a lot of top players taking part.

Carlos Alcaraz is notable among them, as he won his match against Czechia Wednesday despite losing the first set to Tomas Machac, after Machac retired at 6-7 (3), 6-1.

He then combined with Marcel Granollers to win a tight doubles match – 6-7 (2), 6-3, 7-6 (7).

Alcaraz defeated Ugo Humbert of France on Friday, 6-3, 6-3.

Matteo Berrettini is also back in action, part of a strong “home” team in Bologna that doesn’t have Sinner, Sonego or Musetti.

But, like the Americans, the Italians are so deep that they can bring Flavo Cobolli (No. 32), Matteo Arnaldi (No. 33), the wild card Berrettini and the top doubles team of Vavassori and Bolelli.

Kazakhstan has its top two players in action in Astana (as the Russians took Kazakh citizenship for the benefits that country’s national federation offers, it’s probably not optional).

But against the Holger Rune-less squad of more obscure Danes, they are struggling.

Alexander Bublik went down 1-6, 6-2, 6-2 to … Elmer Moeller, a baby-faced 21-year-old ranked No. 247.

And then Alexander Shevchenko went down in straight sets to August Holmgren, ranked No. 166 and a product of the U.S. college system.

They might well come back Sunday in the doubles and the reverse singles. But it was a far from impressive performance.

Hungary is playing Egypt in Cairo without its two top players, Fabian Maroszan and Marton Fucsovics and barely eked out a 3-2 win after trailing 1-2 following the doubles.

Ruud and Nishikori in action

Norway played Portugal in Norway, with recent US Open junior finalist Nicolai Budkov Kjaer (ATP ranking No. 737) winning in his third career nomination against Jaime Faria (No. 157) in a third-set tiebreak. Casper Ruud lost a shocker to Henrique Rocha on opening day, but came back with wins in doubles and against Faria to clinch it.

Top-ranked Portuguese player Nuno Borges, who had a breakout US Open, was on the squad but didn’t see action.

In Bad Waltersdorf, Austria, Austria took a 2-0 lead against Turkey. They don’t have Dominic Thiem on the squad, even if you’d think that might also have been a nice farewell for him.

Full crowd in Ariake, tickets sold out for both days #DavisCup pic.twitter.com/J7tLAPBlZF
— mi-ho (@mi_ho03) September 14, 2024

At the Ariake Collosseum in Tokyo (host of the high-level ATP and WTA tournaments), Kei Nishikori returned to Davis Cup action for the first time since a World Group playoff tie all the way back in 2016 by beating Colombian No. 1 Nicolas Mejia 6-4, 6-4.

Nishikori is the fourth-ranked singles player on a team that includes Yoshihito Nishioka, Taro Daniel and Shintaro Mochizuki. But of course he’d be a logical choice to play if he’s healthy. He’s 20-3 overall in Davis Cup going back to 2008, 17-3 in singles.

And finally, Cana-Israeli Roy Stepanov, who played for Canada when he lived in Toronto as a junior but has since returned to representing his native Israel, played doubles Saturday in a tie against Cyprus in Larnaca.

Stepanov and Daniel Cukierman were beaten by Illya Beloborodko and Oleksii Krutykh 7-5, 7-6 (7) although Israel won the tie overall.

Pool play in … Zhuhai with no China

It’s one of the bizarre twists in this year’s Davis Cup final qualifiers that one of the pools is playing in … Zhuhai, China. But none of the four countries taking part is … China.

China isn’t even in World Group I. It’s in World Group II, and they were in Craiova, Romania this weekend. And the team doesn’t include Jerry Shang or Zhizhen Zhang, with Bu Yunchaokete the only Chinese player ranked in the top 250.

First match on court in Zhuhai 📍

🇩🇪 Maximilian Marterer vs Lukas Klein 🇸🇰#DavisCup pic.twitter.com/6M9qrTuSCt
— Davis Cup (@DavisCup) September 10, 2024

The Chinese were down 0-2 after the singles Friday, salvaging a win in the doubles and then a win by No. 1 Yunchaokete to make the fifth rubber between the two No. 2s the decider.

In the end, Romania’s Cezar Cretu (ranked No. 292) defeated Rigele Te (No. 636) to clinch the tie.

The Asian swing will begin soon, but none of the top players was going to head to China right after the US Open, with smaller events kicking off that swing that not many will play.

It’s hard to fathom what was behind that decision.

Of the four, Zhuhai is the only host venue that doesn’t have a “home” team. And it wasn’t ever going to have one given where China is in the Davis Cup firmament at the moment.

The French – denied

A tough pool with Spain at home in Valencia, and Australia. And France is out, already.

Arthur Fils, who was beaten by Canadian qualifier Gabriel Diallo at the US Open, lost both his matches at No. 2 – to Roberto Bautista Agut and Spain, and then to Thanasi Kokkinakis and Australia.

That negated a solid win by Ugo Humbert over Alexei Popyrin, the top Australian on the squad.

But France, whose players have been the most vociferous in bemoaning the gutting of Davis Cup, won’t even have a chance to play for it again this year.

One of the best games of returns all week!

France are able to salvage something from this week after they over come Czechia in the doubles to win the tie 2-1 🇫🇷

A great day of tennis for both sides! #DavisCup pic.twitter.com/8Tbx7QGMDm
— Davis Cup (@DavisCup) September 14, 2024

The event social media tried to make this a thing, writing about how there were “precious Davis Cup ranking points at stake” and whatnot. But they were trying a little hard.

American ‘B” squad does the job

Meanwhile, because of the massive commute to this tie in China, the Americans very much brought their second varsity to the tie.

And the thing is, the U.S. is so deep that it’s still a really good squad.

The team is led by Brandon Nakashima, at a career-high No. 40 this week, with Mackenzie McDonald (No. 149), Reilly Opelka (No. 309) and top doubles players Rajeev Ram and Austin Krajicek rounding out the squad.

They are already qualified for the finals in Málaga, along with Germany from that pool. It’s only the second time, in the revamped format, that the Americans have made the quarterfinals.

So those two squads played basically a meaningless exhibition on Saturday.

The big disappointment i Zhuhai had to be Chile, which was swept by both the U.S. and Germany.

The best German player was Yanick Hanfmann at No. 96, while Chile had Cana-Chilean Alejandro Tabilo (No. 22) and Nicolas Jarry (No. 28). The Chileans didn’t win a set.

Jarry didn’t play either against Germany or against the U.S., which was a tougher go.

Opelka won a third-set tiebreak against Cristian Garon.

Nakashima won a third-set tiebreak against Tabilo and Krajicek and Ram won the doubles in a … third set tiebreak.

But that’s still an 0-for-3.

The question for the Americans, of course, is if the “A” team will pull rank and parachute in for the finals, which will take place ov. 19-24.

The U.S. has five players in the top 17 of the ATP Tour rankings (and eight in the top 50): Taylor Fritz (No. 7 and a US Open finalist), Tommy Paul (No. 13), Sebastian Korda (No. 15), Frances Tiafoe (No. 16) and Ben Shelton (No. 17).

All took a pass – this time. Will they come in and pull rank at the finals? There’s a fair bit of cash on the table there.

Triumphant return for Majchrzak

Kamil Majchrzak, 28, made a triumphant return to Davis Cup at home, against Korea as the Polish No. 1.

He first played for his country in 2015. But this was his first top-level Davis Cup tie since 2022, as he came back from a doping suspension and had to start from scratch.

Kamil Majchrzak self-reports doping violation

Majchrzak tested positive for three banned substance in tests at three separate tournaments late in 2022 (Sept. 26, Oct. 6 and Oct. 12). He then failed another test in November conducted by the Polish anti-doping federation.

He traced the substances to a change in his supplement regime after meeting with a Polish dietician in Sept. 19, 2022. And given that Majchrzak still had some sachets of the supplements in Jan. 2023 when he received the letter, those were tested and found to contain the substances he tested positive for. He didn’t claim he had no fault or negligence, only no “Significant” fault or negligence. He ended up with 13 months, backdated so that he was eligible to return at the end of 2023.

Majchrzak began 2024 with no ranking; he started Jan. 1 at a low-level $15K in Tunisia – and won it without dropping a set. Grinding his way up in places like Tunisia and Rwanda. He was in Challengers by May. And by the US Open, he was in the qualifying and made it to the final round. His ranking sits at No. 163 after posting a 51-15 won-loss record, all levels combined.

But it didn’t go well for Poland. Especially without top player Hubert Hurkacz.

The Koreans have a bit of a secret weapon in Soonwoo Kwon, ranked No. 344 as he comes back from injury but a top-100 player when healthy – maybe even a top-50 player.

Majchrzak is not in the lineup for the reverse singles Sunday – meaningless matches, in the end, because Korea clinched the tie with a doubles win.

A long way from FedStan …

We take nothing away from this year’s Swiss Davis Cup team by pointing out that this crew is a … long way from the heyday of Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka.

Or even of Marc Rosset and Jakob Hlasek.

But a new dynasty has to start somewhere. They’re through, 4-0 against Peru in Biel.