ForeverDelayed wrote:

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The Knight wrote:

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steven wrote:

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No, it doesn't work like that, there are only playoffs between promotion and relegation contenders for the World Group in DC, if we lose to Poland we go straight down. (for the women, playoffs exist for both WG I and WG II)

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Why in 06 did we play three matches in EA Group 1? (l. Serbia, l. Israel, b. Ukraine)

 

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Without checking the draw for that year, I'd suspect it was because instead of drawing the bye like we did this year in round 1, we drew Serbia instead.

This year South Africa and Macedonia were the teams who didn't get a bye in round 1, and the winner of that tie, South Africa, will play Belarus in May to determine who gets promoted, while I presume the loser will face Macedonia in July, with the loser facing Slovak Republic in the relegation play-off in September.

But as there isn't always an even number of teams in the group because it depends on who wins the world group play-off matches, there's always the likelyhood that some teams will have to play twice, while others only once.

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In 2006, we did get a bye in R1 and played Serbia in R2. However, whereas the Ukraine this year had also had a bye in R1, Serbia had beaten Israel in R1 in 2006. Having lost to Serbia as well, we then had to play Israel, with the loser going into the final relegation playoff against the Ukraine, which in that case we won.

It's a bit clearer if you look at http://www.daviscup.com/results/ea1.asp and pick the year you're interested in from the dropdown. Note that once you have won a tie, there is no way you can have to play in the losers bracket, so if we had beaten Serbia in 2006, Israel would have gone straight to the final relegation playoff against the Ukraine, Serbia wouldn't have had to play them again.

Similarly this year, since South Africa beat Macedonia in R1 and in R2 will play Belarus (who had a bye in R1), if Belarus beat South Africa, Macedonia will go straight down to a final relegation playoff against Slovakia (because South Africa, having already won a tie this year, won't have to play Macedonia again), but if South Africa beat Belarus, Belarus (who then won't have won a tie this year yet) will play Macedonia in July with Slovakia facing the loser of that tie.

All this kind of makes sense, but perhaps it's not that surprising that a lot of people don't really understand how DC works.

The complications here result from the fact that there are always some R1 byes in EA Group I because, as FD says, the number of teams in EA Group I depends on how many European teams are in the World Group that year.

Btw I've just noticed that in Australia's Asia Oceania Group I tie with Thailand, Danai Udomchoke beat both Brydan Klein and Lleyton Hewitt (!) and the Aussie hero of the tie was none other than the Gooch, teaming up with Carsten Ball to beat the Rati Thais in the doubles and then beating smellycat (Kittiphong Wachiramanowong) in the 5th rubber.

-- Edited by steven at 01:15, 2009-03-12