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Last February, Canada defeated Korea indoors at Stade IGA to book a spot in the Davis Cup Finals.

A year later, they’ll be back in Montreal again, hosting a first-round Davis Cup tie against Hungary.

The tie will take place on Feb. 1 and 2, 2025 with the relatively new two-day format for Davis Cup qualifying rounds.

The options were to hold the tie Jan. 31 and Feb. 1, or on the two weekend days. The latter is the option chosen by Tennis Canada.

Those dates are right after the end of the Australian Open, which wraps up with the men’s final on Jan. 26.

Tickets are on sale here: Match time Saturday is 12:45 p.m., Sunday is 1 p.m. (subject to change) (The site doesn’t seem quite operational yet).

The winning nation will face either Finland or Austria on the weekend of Sept. 12-14 – which is the weekend after the end of the US Open.

***Hungary will hope to have chiseled veteran Marton Fucsovics in the lineup for the World Group tie vs. Canada in February.***

The format’s been tweaked, as that second round will return to being a series of home-and-away ties after several years of having this round being held at various neutral venues, in a round-robin format.

Netherlands, the 2024 finalists, have a bye through to that September second round. Champion Italy has a bye all the way to the finals, which move to Bologna, Italy in Nov. 2025.

If Canada wins – and with Fabian Maroszan and Marton Fucsovics as the two top Hungarian singles players, it’s no slam-dunk – there’s a chance it could host again in September.

If they face Austria, they would be on the road. The last time the two nations faced each other was back in 1992. And that tie was held at the Hollyburn Country Club in Vancouver, on grass.

If it’s Finland, that one would be decided by a coin flip. The two nations met the last two years in the finals qualifiers, in the U.K. and in Spain. Those are neutral venues. The countries met all the way back in 1966, and Canada was on the road in Finland. But that doesn’t count, as any relevant tie has to take place after 1970 for it to factor into the decision on home ground.

Hockey filling arenas in February

It’s not easy, especially with relatively little notice, to find a suitable arena for this kind of tie in February.

Most of them host hockey teams at various levels. And the tie requires the venue be available for at least a week, for set-up and practice.

As an example, Centre Bell in Laval has too many conflicts that week.

So, as they did last year for the tie against Korea, Tennis Canada will build a temporary stadium on the indoor courts at Stade IGA.

***Canada qualified last February with a win over Korea, indoors at Stade IGA. (Getty)***

Tight sked with ATP events the next week

Who will play?

Will Denis Shapovalov and Félix Auger-Aliassime make the date?

The week right after the tie (starting on the Monday), the ATP has events in Dallas and Rotterdam. Both of them ATP 500 events – Dallas is newly upgraded this year – with full 32-player draws.

Both skipped the tie vs. Korea last February; Gabriel Diallo and Vasek Pospisil played the singles. And a year ago, both events the following week – Dallas and Marseille – were lower-level ATP 250 tournaments.

But Auger-Aliassime has already confirmed he’s playing Montpellier – which is the same week as Davis Cup. So that is that.

***You wouldn’t expect Auger-Aliassime to miss Rotterdam, which is one of his favorite tournaments. It takes place right after the Davis Cup tie.***

Without those two, of course, you might not need as big a venue.

It’s hard to know if it would have been more helpful if they’d held the tie on Friday and Saturday, with Sunday free for travel.

Other ties and venues

There will be 12 other ties going on during that first week of February at the World Group level.

The Americans don’t get much of a break, as they have to go all the way to Taipei right after Australia – which isn’t too bad if you make a deep run at Melbourne Park, but logistically awkward if you don’t.

Great Britain has to travel to Japan. All the other ties with the exception of Canada v Hungary will be in Europe.