Davis Cup Yearbook

Two years ago, John Fitzgerald made the most difficult speech of his life, one of deep and gut-wrenching honesty, in congratulating the French on their victory in Melbourne. When he was summoned onto the grand stage after the 2003 final, it must have seemed like an eternity had passed. Thus the Davis Cup continued to weave its magic. Fitzgerald could bask in the delights of victory after what he had called the hardest time he had ever had in tennis. He knew only too well the emotions invoked as the Davis Cup by BNP Paribas continues to be filled with stories of heroism and denial that make it the most successful and special annual team competition in sport. This was a year in which Germany and Great Britain -- two of the event's proudest old champions -- were relegated from the World Group, and unheralded Canada was gloriously promoted. Lleyton Hewitt, who spent his entire year thinking of nothing else but winning the Davis Cup, claimed the decisive semifinal rubber against the Wimbledon champion Roger Federer of Switzerland from two sets and 5-3 down in the match of the year. He was consumed by the Cup and ended the year sipping champagne from it.There was all of this and so much more. One hundred and three years after Dwight Davis's vision became reality, the vitality, passion, and drama of an event that occupied the hearts and minds of 135 nations in 2003 showed no sign of diminishing. This book, written by Neil Harman, the tennis correspondent of The Times of London, is an expanded, attentive examination of the matches and personalities that defined another glorious year. With much of the material gleaned from exclusive interviews, the book provides a unique perspective on an event that is thriving into its second century because it so perfectly reflects the indomitable nature of the human spirit.