Britain handed wild card for 2022 Davis Cup Finals

Britain lost in the quarter-finals earlier this week but will not need to play in the qualifiers in March

Leon Smith’s Great Britain team have been given free passage into the 2022 Davis Cup Finals (Ian Rutherford/PA) (PA Archive)

Great Britain have received a wild card for the 2022 Davis Cup Finals.

Leon Smith’s side and Novak Djokovic’s Serbia were awarded the two wild cards for next year’s tournament, meaning they do not need to play in the qualifiers in March.

Britain and Serbia join this year’s finalists the Russian Tennis Federation and Croatia, who will compete for the trophy later on Sunday in Madrid in earning free passage.

Britain’s campaign came to a disappointing end earlier this week with a 2-1 loss to Germany in the quarter-finals in Innsbruck.

It is the second time since the format of Davis Cup changed to a World Cup-style finals in 2019 that Britain have been awarded a wild card, while they qualified directly for this year’s edition by reaching the semi-finals two years ago.

While the decision is positive news for the British team in one way, it also means the possibility of a home tie in March is removed, which will disappoint many fans.

Britain’s last Davis Cup tie on home soil came three years ago, when they defeated Uzbekistan in Glasgow.

A press conference to announce the host or hosts of the 2022 finals, which had been scheduled for Sunday morning, was cancelled. It has been widely touted that Abu Dhabi will stage at least part of the finals.