The Copa Centroamericana ( [ˈkopa sentɾoameɾiˈkana] , Spanish for "Central American Cup") was the main association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the Unión Centroamericana de Fútbol ( UNCAF ), the sport's Central American governing body. Held every two years since 1991 , in the years before and after the FIFA World Cup tournaments, it was originally called the UNCAF Nations Cup ( Spanish : Copa de Naciones de la UNCAF ), changing to the latter name in 2011 .
90-472: The tournament consisted of two stages. In the Group stage of the tournament finals, the seven teams competed in two round-robin groups, one of four teams and the other of three, for points, with the top two teams in each group proceeding. These four teams qualified for the semifinal stage of the final round, where the winners advanced into the final while the losers disputed a third-place match. The fifth-place match
180-497: A repechage , allowing losers to play extra rounds before re-entering the main competition in a later round. Rowing regattas often have repechage rounds for the "fastest loser" from the heats. The winners of these progress, but are at a disadvantage in later rounds owing to the extra effort expended during the repechage. A family of tournament systems that grew from a system devised for the Victorian Football League,
270-409: A round-robin tournament , each competitor plays all the others an equal number of times, once in a single round-robin tournament and twice in a double round-robin tournament. This is often seen as producing the most reliable rankings. However, for large numbers of competitors it may require an unfeasibly large number of rounds. A Swiss system tournament attempts to determine a winner reliably, based on
360-428: A single-elimination tournament . This format is common in many international team events, such as World Cups or Olympic tournaments. Some tournaments have two group stages, for example the 1982 FIFA World Cup or the 1999–2000 UEFA Champions League . As well as a fixed number of qualifiers from each group, some may be determined by comparing between different groups: at the 1986 FIFA World Cup and UEFA Euro 2016 ,
450-427: A "tournament" is a tournament in the first sense above, composed of multiple "events", which are tournaments in the second sense. Some events may be single-elimination, double-elimination, or Swiss style. However, " Pair events " are the most widespread. In these events, a number of deals (or boards ) are each played several times by different players. For each such board the score achieved by each north–south (NS) pair
540-416: A Swiss System for UEFA Champions League , the second matchday in the first stage (today's Groups Stage) would depend on the results of the first matchday of the same stage, the third matchday would depend on the results of both the first and the second matchday, and so on, in contrast to the predetermination of all Groups Stage fixtures upon the initial draw. Another tournament system that attempts to reduce
630-494: A bye in the first round of the INZ challenger rounds. In 1966 , the "Europe Zone" was split into two zones, "Europe Zone A" and "Europe Zone B", so the winners of the four zones competed in the INZ challenger rounds. From 1950 to 1967 , Australia dominated the competition, winning the Cup 15 times in 18 years. Beginning in 1972 , the format was changed to a knockout competition , so that
720-532: A combined team from Australia and New Zealand that competed together until 1914 . The competition was initially titled the International Lawn Tennis Challenge although it soon became known as the Davis Cup , after Dwight Davis' trophy. The Davis Cup competition was initially played as a challenge cup. All teams competed against one another for the right to face the previous year's champion in
810-428: A competitor to lose two games and creates a third bracket or fourth bracket which are usually followed by a playoff. It is commonly used in curling tournaments. Some elimination tournaments are in a best-of- n series , requiring a competitor to lose a majority of n games (in a series against the same opponent) before being eliminated (e.g. in a best-of-7 games series, the winner must win 4 games). Some formats use
900-413: A final playoff. The bottom five teams play their own home-and-away league, but their previous results do carry over. These teams are competing to avoid relegation, with the bottom team automatically relegated and the second-from-bottom team forced to play a mini-league with the second- and third-place teams from the second level for a place in the top league. Where the number of competitors is larger than
990-447: A fixture may consist of one or more game-matches between competitors). Points are awarded for each fixture, with competitors ranked based either on total number of points or average points per fixture. Usually each competitor plays an equal number of fixtures, in which case rankings by total points and by average points are equivalent. The English County Championship in cricket did not require an equal number of matches prior to 1963. In
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#17328551793641080-469: A multi-stage tournament. The competitors are divided into multiple groups, which play separate round-robins in parallel. Measured by a points-based ranking system , the top competitors in each group qualify for the next stage. In most editions of the FIFA World Cup finals tournament, the first round has been a group stage with groups of four teams, the top two qualifying for the "knockout stage" played as
1170-437: A nation has a winning 3–1 lead after the first reverse single match and that match has gone to four sets or more, then the remaining reverse single match which is a dead rubber is not played. All five rubbers are played if one nation has a winning 3–0 lead after the doubles match. Ties are played at a venue chosen by one of the competing countries. The right of choice is given on an alternating basis. Therefore, countries play in
1260-467: A properly sanctioned match, but failed to do so. He nevertheless tried to entice top international (particularly British) talent to the U.S. and sanctioned semi-official tours of the top American players to Great Britain. Diplomatic relations between Great Britain and the United States on the tennis front had strengthened such that, by the mid-1890s, reciprocal tours were staged annually between players of
1350-469: A pure knockout playoff. Similar systems are used in cricket's Indian Premier League and most curling tournaments, and were also used by the Super League of European rugby league before being scrapped after the 2014 season. In athletics meetings, fastest losers may progress in a running event held over several rounds; e.g. the qualifiers for a later round might be the first 4 from each of 6 heats, plus
1440-401: A satellite tournament. A satellite tournament in pinball is modeled after those in poker . It is a smaller tournament that leads up to a major pinball championship, where participants have the opportunity to win their entry into the larger tournament. Applying the satellite tournament concept to pinball was first done by Northwest Pinball and Arcade Show in 2013 to promote both the show and
1530-399: A single bad or unlucky performance can nullify many preceding excellent ones. A double-elimination tournament may be used in 2-competitor games to allow each competitor a single loss without being eliminated from the tournament. All losers from the main bracket enter a losers' bracket, the winner of which plays off against the main bracket's winner. A triple-elimination tournament allows
1620-449: A smaller number of fixtures. Unlike regular Groups format, fixtures are scheduled one round at a time and depending on the results of the previous one; a competitor will play another who has a similar record in previous rounds of the tournament. This allows the top (and bottom) competitors to be determined with fewer rounds than a round-robin, though the middle rankings are unreliable. For clarification, this means in hypothesis UEFA adopts
1710-610: A team in the bottom half never receives a higher final ranking than a team which qualified for the top half. A multi-stage pool system was implemented by Curling Canada for the Canadian championship curling tournaments (the Scotties Tournament of Hearts for women and the Montana's Brier for men) starting in 2018. The change was intended to allow the expansion of the main stage of the tournament from twelve to sixteen teams while keeping
1800-441: A tie between two nations involves five rubbers between the nations' players. The team that wins the most rubbers wins the tie. In the later rounds of UEFA Champions League , each fixture is played over two legs . The scores of each leg are added, and the team with the higher aggregate score wins the fixture, with extra time, and if necessary, a penalty shoot-out used if the scores are level after both matches conclude. In this case,
1890-423: A tournament format permits, there may be multiple tournaments held in parallel, with competitors assigned to a particular tournament based on their ranking. In Chess , Scrabble , and many other individual games, many tournaments over one or more years contribute to a player's ranking. However, many team sports involve teams in only one major tournament per year. In European sport, including football, this constitutes
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#17328551793641980-400: A tournament is to determine the winner of a competition. Ideally, the tournament should be designed in such a way that all participants have an equal chance to compete and progress, regardless of factors like seeding or scheduling. The influence of luck or chance on the results should be minimised. The tournament should also be an exciting and engaging event for participants and spectators. Hence
2070-531: A unique system. In its first phase, 12 of the league's 13 clubs compete in a full home-and-away season, with the country's representative in the Euroleague (an elite pan-European club competition) exempt. The league then splits. The top seven teams are joined by the Euroleague representative for a second home-and-away season, with no results carrying over from the first phase. These eight teams compete for four spots in
2160-421: A win and 1 for a tie, which is mathematically equivalent but avoids having too many half-points in the listings, or 3 points for a win and 1 for a tie , which de-emphasizes ties in favor of playing to a decisive result. These are usually ordered Wins–Ties–Losses. If there are more than two competitors per fixture, points may be ordinal (for example, 3 for first, 2 for second, 1 for third). The primary objective of
2250-515: Is 24. However, the distribution among the three zones may vary each year, according to the number of nations promoted or relegated between Group One and the World Group. The number of nations in the World Group and Group One together is 22 from Euro/Africa Zone, 9 from Americas Zone and 9 from Asia/Oceania Zone. As in other cup competitions tie is used in the Davis Cup to mean an elimination round. In
2340-527: Is a qualifying event. Winners of these satellites usually win the buy-in fee to a larger, more prestigious tournament like the World Series of Poker Main Event. Although there are some land-based satellite tournaments (usually for very high-stakes tournaments), most of them are online-based . Some sites, like PokerStars , maintain several tiers of satellites. A player can thus start out at one tier (not necessarily
2430-626: Is described by the organisers as the "World Cup of Tennis" and the winners are referred to as the world champions. The competition began in 1900 as a challenge between Great Britain and the United States . By 2023 155 nations entered teams into the competition. The most successful country over the history of the competition is the United States (winning 32 titles and finishing as runners-up 29 times). The most recent champions are Italy , who beat Netherlands to win their third title (and second consecutive one) in 2024 . The women's equivalent of
2520-505: Is played as the best of five matches (4 singles, 1 doubles). The ITF determines the host countries for all possible matchups before each year's tournament. The World Group is the top group and includes the world's best 18 national teams. Teams in the World Group play a four-round elimination event. Teams are seeded based on a ranking system released by the ITF, taking into account previous years' results. The defending champion and runner-up are always
2610-453: Is then measured against all the other NS pairs playing the same board. Thus pairs are rewarded for playing the same cards better than others have played them. There is a predetermined schedule of fixtures depending on the number of pairs and boards to be played, to ensure a good mix of opponents, and that no pair plays the same board or the same opponents twice (see duplicate bridge movements ). In poker tournaments , as players are eliminated,
2700-414: The 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine . The 18 best national teams are assigned to the World Group and compete annually for the Davis Cup. Nations which are not in the World Group compete in one of three regional zones (Americas, Asia/Oceania, and Europe/Africa). The competition is spread over four weekends during the year. Each elimination round between competing nations is held in one of the countries, and
2790-512: The Open Era (pre-1968) were not allowed to compete in the Davis Cup despite the fact that the Grand Slam tournaments and most tennis tournaments became Open Era events in 1968. From 1968 national registered professionals were allowed to compete under the control of their national tennis associations. In 1973 Australian players like Rod Laver and Ken Rosewall were allowed to play in the Davis Cup for
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2880-610: The Scottish Premiership and its historic predecessor, the Scottish Premier League , since 2000. After 33 games, when every club has played every other club three times, the division is split into two halves. Clubs play a further five matches, against the teams in their half of the division. This can (and often does) result in the team placed seventh having a higher points total than the team placed sixth (because their final five games are considerably easier), nevertheless,
2970-634: The United States , the CONCACAF Congress in Kingston , Jamaica decided to stage a continental championship itself ; the CONCACAF Gold Cup was ratified on August 18, 1990. Costa Rica were given a bye into the competition due to its first place placing at the 1989 CONCACAF Championship , which also served as a qualification phase for the World Cup hosted by Italy. However, due to mainly economic reasons,
3060-485: The Wimbledon tennis championship . Tournaments "are temporally demarcated events, participation in which confers levels of status and prestige amongst all participating members". A tournament-match (or tie or fixture or heat ) may involve one or more game-matches (or rubbers or legs ) and if necessary one or more tiebreak-matches between the competitors. For example, in the Davis Cup tennis tournament,
3150-640: The "British Isles"), was held at the Longwood Cricket Club in Boston, Massachusetts in 1900 . The American team, of which Dwight Davis was captain, surprised the British by winning the first three matches. The following year the two countries did not compete, but the US won the match in 1902 and Britain won the following four matches. By 1905 the event expanded to include Belgium , Austria , France , and Australasia ,
3240-462: The "Championship Pool." Carrying over their entire round robin records with them, Championship Pool teams play one game against each of the four teams in the opposite pool, with the top four teams qualifying for the page playoffs . In contrast, teams that fail to qualify for the Championship Pool play only one additional "Placement Round" game against the team that finished in the same position in
3330-409: The 8 fastest losers from among the remaining runners. An extreme form of the knockout tournament is the stepladder format where the strongest team (or individual, depending on the sport) is assured of a berth at the final round while the next strongest teams are given byes according to their strength/seeds; for example, in a four team tournament, the fourth and third seed figure in the first round, then
3420-614: The Davis Cup is the Billie Jean King Cup , formerly known as the Federation Cup (1963–1995) and Fed Cup (1995–2020). Australia, Italy, Russia, the Czech Republic and the United States are the only countries to have won both Davis Cup and Federation/Fed/Billie Jean King Cup titles in the same year. The Davis Cup allowed only amateurs and national registered professional players (from 1968) to compete until 1973 , five years after
3510-418: The Davis Cup, the word rubber means an individual match. In the annual World Group competition, 16 nations compete in eight first-round ties; the eight winners compete in four quarterfinal ties; the four winners compete in two semifinal ties; and the two winners compete in the final tie. Each tie consists of five rubbers, which are played in three days (usually on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday). The winner of
3600-502: The ITF voted to change the format of the competition from 2019 onwards, changing it to an 18-team event to happen at the end of the season, with 71% of ITF member federations voting in favour of the change. The new format, backed by footballer Gerard Piqué and Japanese businessman Hiroshi Mikitani , was likened to a world cup of tennis and was designed to be more attractive to sponsors and broadcasters. Opposing federations included those from Australia, Germany, and Great Britain. Support for
3690-546: The Pacific Southwest Satellite played in Inglewood, California was a standalone event won by Mike Estep , and were officially the second tier of tournaments after the main tour and predated the introduction of challenger events in 1978, they then became the third tier of events and were discontinued following the 2006 season as the circuit moved exclusively to one-week Futures tournaments , the modern denomination for
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3780-518: The U.S. the following summer, which would represent the first British lawn tennis "team" to compete in the U.S. Coincidentally, some weeks before Larned left for his British tour, the idea for an international competition was discussed also between leading figures in American lawn tennis—one of whom was tennis journalist E.P. Fischer—at a tournament in Niagara-on-the-Lake , Ontario. Dwight F. Davis
3870-490: The United States were chosen as the venue for the continental tournament. During that same conference, the qualification format for the Central American associations were also decided on. The final qualification round of the Central American zone had two bids: the United States and Costa Rica. Costa Rica, now three-time CONCACAF champions and to celebrate their anniversary of the nation's World Cup performance by its team,
3960-639: The best British players against six of the best Americans, in a mixture of singles and doubles matches. This was discussed openly in two articles in the Chicago Tribune , but did not come to fruition. Nevertheless, the following summer, Great Britain—though not under the official auspices of the Lawn Tennis Association —sent three of its best players to compete in several US tournaments. Their relative poor performances convinced Dwight and other leading officials and figures in American lawn tennis that
4050-486: The best competitor in a game or sport, other methods exist. Tournaments of value have come to legitimise what are often seen as marginalised practices that sit outside of popular culture. For example, the Grammy Award ceremony helped to shape country music as a viable commercial field, and Booker Prize ceremony helped to create new fields of literary fiction. Tournaments of value go beyond game show and simple contests as
4140-614: The best four of six third-place sides qualified; at the 1999 Rugby World Cup the best one of five third-place sides did so. Sometimes, results from an earlier phase are carried over into a later phase. In the Cricket World Cup , the second stage, known as the Super Eight since 2007 and before that the Super Six, features two teams from each of four preliminary groups (previously three teams from two preliminary groups), who do not replay
4230-439: The country where the last tie between the teams was not held. In case the two countries have not met since 1970, lots are drawn to determine the host country. Venues in the World Group must comply with certain minimum standards, including a minimum seating capacity as follows: Prior to each tie, the captain (non-playing coach appointed by the national association) nominates a squad of four players and decides who will compete in
4320-433: The cup after India refused to travel to South Africa in protest of South Africa's apartheid policies. The following year saw the first actual final between two "outsider" nations, when Sweden beat Czechoslovakia 3–2, and since then, many other countries have gone on to capture the trophy. All contract professionals were not allowed to play in the Davis Cup until 1973. The tennis stars who turned professional prior to
4410-408: The defending champion was required to compete in all rounds, and the Davis Cup was awarded to the champion. Up until 1973 , the Davis Cup had only ever been won by the United States, Great Britain/British Isles, France and Australia/Australasia. Their domination was eventually broken in 1974 when South Africa and India made the final; however, the final was scratched and South Africa was awarded
4500-450: The defines qualification to the following stage. There may be other considerations besides reliability of rankings. In some professional team sports, weaker teams are given an easier slate of fixtures as a form of handicapping . Sometimes schedules are weighted in favour of local derbies or other traditional rivalries . For example, NFL teams play two games against each of the other three teams in their division, one game against six of
4590-426: The doubles rubber: the two singles players, two other players (usually doubles specialists) or a combination. Each rubber is normally played as best of five sets . Since 2016 , all sets use a tiebreak at 6–6 if necessary (formerly, the fifth set usually had no tiebreaker, so play continued until one side won by two games e.g. 10–8). However, if a team has clinched the tie before all five rubbers have been completed,
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#17328551793644680-427: The final or cup final, consists of just one fixture; the winner of which is the overall champion. In a single-elimination tournament , only the top-ranked competitors in a fixture progress; in 2-competitor games, only the winner progresses. All other competitors are eliminated. This ensures a winner is decided with the minimum number of fixtures. However, most competitors will be eliminated after relatively few matches;
4770-466: The final round. Beginning in 1923 , the world's teams were split into two zones: the "America Zone" and the "Europe Zone". The winners of the two zones met in the Inter-Zonal Zone ("INZ") to decide which national team would challenge the defending champion for the cup. In 1955 a third zone, the "Eastern Zone", was added. Because there were three zones, the winner of one of the three zones received
4860-442: The first day's singles rubbers. However, in certain circumstances, the team captain may replace one or two of the players who played the singles on Friday by other players who were nominated for the tie. For example, if the tie has already been decided in favour of one of the teams, it is common for younger or lower-ranked team members to play the remaining dead rubbers in order for them to gain Davis Cup experience. Since 2011, if
4950-475: The first definition, but while match play tournaments meet the second, stroke play tournaments do not, since there are no distinct matches within the tournament. In contrast, association football leagues like the Premier League are tournaments in the second sense, but not the first, having matches spread across many venues over a period of up to a season. Many tournaments meet both definitions; for example,
5040-460: The first tiebreak-match is extra time (modified game-match with reduced duration) and the second tiebreak-match is a penalty shoot-out. A knockout tournament or elimination tournament is divided into successive rounds; each competitor plays in at least one fixture per round. The top-ranked competitors in each fixture progress to the next round. As rounds progress, the number of competitors and fixtures decreases. The final round, usually known as
5130-461: The first time since 1962 (for Laver) and since 1956 (for Rosewall). In 1981 , a tiered system of competition was created, in which the 16 best national teams compete in the World Group and all other national teams compete in one of four groups in one of three regional zones. In 1989 , the tiebreak was introduced into Davis Cup competition, and from 2016 it is used in all five sets. In 2018,
5220-421: The following requirements for an ideal tournament: Many tournaments are held in multiple stages, with the top teams in one stage progressing to the next. American professional team sports have a "regular season" (group tournament) acting as qualification for the "post season" or " playoffs " (single-elimination tournament). A group stage (also known as pool play or the pool stage ) is a round-robin stage in
5310-635: The groups and the two best second places advancing to quarterfinals. The series between the teams in this stage will feature two singles matches and one doubles match, instead of the best-of-5 series, with the matches changing from best of 5 sets to best of 3. As the World Group will now take place as one single competition, this event has been named as the Davis Cup Finals. The lower zone groups I and II will be composed of single ties deciding promotion or relegation. Note: The total number of nations in Group One
5400-668: The historic predecessor to the Australian Football League (AFL), allow the teams with the best record before the playoffs to lose a game without being eliminated, whereas lesser qualifiers are not. Several of the most prominent leagues in Australia use such a system, such as the AFL and the National Rugby League in rugby league. The A-League of association football also used such a system through its 2011–12 season, but now uses
5490-482: The idea, which was tentatively agreed, and he ordered an appropriate sterling silver punchbowl trophy from Shreve, Crump & Low , purchasing it from his own funds for about US$ 1,000. They in turn commissioned a classically styled design from William B. Durgin 's of Concord, New Hampshire , crafted by the Englishman Rowland Rhodes. Beyond donating a trophy for the competition, Davis's involvement in
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#17328551793645580-402: The incipient development of the team competition that came to bear his name was negligible, yet a persistent myth has emerged that Davis devised both the idea for an international tennis competition and its format of mixing singles and doubles matches. Research has shown this to be a myth, similar in its exaggeration of a single individual's efforts within a highly complex long-term development to
5670-510: The losing teams facing relegation to the next-lower group. The teams in Groups III and those in Group IV play a round-robin event with promotion and relegation. For the 2019 edition , the format of the cup is changed. The main modification is the World Group taking place at one location and in one week, with eighteen teams divided in six round-robin groups of three teams each, with the winners of
5760-508: The lowest one) and play their way to a higher tier. The entry fee for each tier is always higher than the fee for the tier below it, with the first tier being the cheapest. In professional tennis, satellite circuits were four-week tournaments (five before 1987), typically organised by a country's national tennis association and overseen by the International Tennis Federation . They were played by players who were ranked outside
5850-480: The myths of William Webb Ellis and Abner Doubleday , who have both been wrongly credited with inventing rugby and baseball, respectively. Davis nevertheless went on to become a prominent politician in the United States in the 1920s, serving as US Secretary of War from 1925 to 1929 and as Governor-General of the Philippines from 1929 to 1932. The first match, between the United States and Britain (competing as
5940-518: The number of fixtures per competitor is the Pot System. Under that system, competitors are divided to different "pots" based on predetermined ranking and are drawn to play one rival from each pot, including their own pot. For example, in a 36-team World Cup, teams would be divided into 3 pots, with each team playing 3 matches - one against a Pot A team, one against Pot B team, and one against a team from Pot C. All teams are then placed in one general standing
6030-567: The number of tables is gradually reduced, with the remaining players redistributed among the remaining tables. Play continues until one player has won all of the chips in play. Finishing order is determined by the order in which players are eliminated: last player remaining gets first place, last player eliminated gets second, previous player eliminated gets third, etc. In a "shootout" tournament, players do not change tables until every table has been reduced to one player. While tournament structures attempt to provide an objective format for determining
6120-532: The only sides in history to win consecutive titles, with the former winning an unprecedented three titles in 2003 , 2005 and 2007 . The final tournament was held in 2017 , with its place in the fixture schedule being taken by the CONCACAF Nations League . Due to the success of the Costa Rica national football team at the 1990 FIFA World Cup and the approaching 1994 FIFA World Cup to be hosted in
6210-443: The opposite pool for the purposes of determining final tournament ranking. For these teams, there is little else to play for since there is no form of relegation (and, with the expansion of the field to sixteen teams, no "pre-qualifying tournament") and seeding is based solely on the performances of the participating teams and not the past results of the provinces and territories they represent. The top Slovenian basketball league has
6300-479: The other twelve teams in their conference, and one game against five of the sixteen teams in the other conference. American sports are also unusual in providing fixtures between competitors who are, for ranking purposes, in different groups. Another, systematic, example of this was the 2006 Women's Rugby World Cup : each of the teams in Group A played each of the teams in Group B, with the groups ranked separately based on
6390-571: The reform was also mixed among current and former players, with some such as Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal being in favour of the new format, but others such as Rod Laver , Lucas Pouille and Roger Federer being opposed. On 12 January 2023, the ITF announced that the partnership with the new promoter ends and that ITF is taking back the control of the event. Davis Cup games have been affected by political protests several times, especially in Sweden: Russia and Belarus were suspended after
6480-503: The results. (Groups C and D intertwined similarly.) An elaboration of this system is the Mitchell movement in duplicate bridge, discussed below , where north–south pairs play east–west pairs. In 2-competitor games where ties are rare or impossible, competitors are typically ranked by number of wins, with ties counting half; each competitors' listings are usually ordered Wins–Losses(–Ties). Where ties are more common, this may be 2 points for
6570-449: The round robin at eleven games. The teams are seeded using a ranking system in which points are calculated based on the teams' results in all competitive bonspiels using a complicated formula. Seeds 1, 4, 5, 8, 9, 12, 13 and 16 and placed in Pool A while seeds 2, 3, 6, 7, 10, 11, 14 and 15 are placed in Pool B. After each team has played seven games, the top four teams from each pool advance to
6660-496: The sole ranking for the following season; the top teams from each division of the league are promoted to a higher division, while the bottom teams from a higher division are relegated to a lower one. This promotion and relegation occurs mainly in league tournaments, but also features in Davis Cup and Fed Cup tennis: The hierarchy of divisions may be linear, or tree-like, as with the English football league pyramid . In contract bridge
6750-537: The standard Davis Cup format, mixing single and doubles matches, and in 1895 England played against France in a national team competition. During Larned's tour of the British Isles in 1896, where he competed in several tournaments including the Wimbledon Championships , he was also a spectator for the annual England vs. Ireland match. He returned to exclaim that Britain had agreed to send a group of three to
6840-414: The start of the Open Era . The idea for an event pitting the best British and Americans in competition against one another was probably first conceived by James Dwight , the first president of the U.S. National Lawn Tennis Association when it formed in 1881. Desperate to assess the development of American players against the renowned British champions, he worked tirelessly to engage British officials in
6930-529: The summer of 1899, that four members of the Harvard University tennis team—Dwight Davis included—travelled across the States to challenge the best west-coast talent, and upon his return, it apparently occurred to Davis that if teams representing regions could arouse such great feelings, then why wouldn't a tennis event that pitted national teams in competition be just as successful. He approached James Dwight with
7020-474: The teams they have already played, but instead reuse the original results in the new league table. Formerly in the Swiss Football League , teams played a double round-robin, at which point they were split into a top "championship" group and a bottom "relegation" group; each played a separate double round-robin, with results of all 32 matches counting for ranking each group. A similar system is also used by
7110-421: The tie is the nation which wins three or more of the five rubbers in the tie. On the first day, the first two rubbers are singles , which are generally played by each nation's two best available singles players. On the second day, the doubles rubber is played. On the third day, the final two rubbers are typically reverse singles , in which the first-day contestants usually play again, but they swap opponents from
7200-431: The tie. On the day before play starts, the order of play for the first day is drawn at random. In the past, teams could substitute final day singles players only in case of injury or illness, verified by a doctor, but current rules permit the captain to designate any player to play the last two singles rubbers, provided that no first day matchup is repeated. There is no restriction on which of the playing team members may play
7290-560: The time was right for a properly sanctioned international competition. This was to be staged in Newcastle in July 1898, but the event never took place as the Americans could not field a sufficiently strong team. A reciprocal tour to the U.S. in 1899 amounted to just a single British player travelling overseas, as many of the players were involved in overseas armed conflicts. It was at this juncture, in
7380-611: The top few hundred by the Association of Tennis Professionals , with openings for unranked players in the qualifying draw. Total prize money ranged from $ 25,000 to $ 75,000 per circuit. ATP points were awarded on the basis of a player's ranking within the circuit and from 1987 onwards on the basis of the conversion of a player's circuit points into ATP points. Players successful at this level of pro tennis would move on to play ATP Challenger Series or even top-flight ATP Tour events. The men's satellite tournaments began as early as 1971 such as
7470-444: The top two seeds in the event. The losers of the first-round matches are sent to the World Group playoff round, where they play along with winners from Group I of the regional zones. The playoff round winners play in the World Group for the next year's competition, while the losers play in Group I of their respective regional zone. Each of the three regional zones is divided into four groups. Groups I and II play elimination rounds, with
7560-438: The tournament itself emerges as being more significant, bestowing status and prestige on the winner and, in the process, shapes industry practices and acts as institutional mechanisms for shaping social fields. A satellite tournament is either a minor tournament or event on a competitive sporting tour or one of a group of such tournaments that form a series played in the same country or region. A satellite tournament in poker
7650-402: The tournaments at the show. Since then, some other major tournaments have begun using the concept. Davis Cup The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis . It is organised by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and contested annually between teams from over 150 competing countries, making it the world's largest annual team sporting competition. It
7740-415: The two nations, and an ensuing friendship between American William Larned and Irishman Harold Mahony spurred efforts to formalize an official team competition between the two nations. International competitions had been staged for some time before the first Davis Cup match in 1900. From 1892, England and Ireland had been competing in an annual national-team-based competition, similar to what would become
7830-434: The winner goes to the semifinals against the second seed, while the survivor faces the first seed at the final. Four American sports organizations either currently use this format, or have in the past: A group tournament, league , division or conference involves all competitors playing a number of fixtures (again, a fixture is one name for a tournament-match that determines who, out of two or three or more, will advance;
7920-701: Was disputed between the third-ranked teams of the group stage. Depending on their performance in the Copa Centroamericana, teams then went on to participate in other competitions, such as the CONCACAF Gold Cup and the Copa América . The 14 Central American Championship tournaments were won by four different national teams: Costa Rica were the most successful national team of the competition with eight victories. Honduras won four titles. Guatemala and Panama won one title each. Costa Rica and Honduras were
8010-470: Was in attendance at this tournament, and was thought to have got wind of the idea as it was discussed in the tournament's popular magazine, and Davis's name was mentioned as someone who might 'do something for the game ... put up some big prize, or cup'. Larned and Fischer met on several occasions that summer and discussed the idea of an international match to be held in Chicago the following summer, pitting six of
8100-453: Was named by CONCACAF and UNCAF as the host country of the inaugural UNCAF Nations Cup tournament on February 19, 1991. Seven UNCAF members participated on the tournament Group stage A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game . More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: These two senses are distinct. All golf tournaments meet
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