Tennis is, for almost the entire season, an individual sport — players compete for themselves, for ranking points, and for prize money. But several times a year the game transforms into a team sport, with players setting aside individual results to represent their countries. Those team competitions are among the oldest and most emotionally charged events in tennis, and they follow a different logic from the week-to-week tour. This guide explains what team tennis is, the major competitions that make it up, and how they differ.
What Is Team Tennis?
In team tennis, players compete as members of a national team rather than as individuals. A captain sets the lineup, ties are decided by a series of singles and doubles matches, and the result belongs to the country rather than to any one player. The format produces a distinct kind of drama — clinching rubbers, captain’s decisions, partisan home crowds, and players competing for something other than their own ranking — that the individual tour cannot replicate.
The competitions differ in who plays (men, women, or mixed teams), who runs them (the International Tennis Federation or the professional tours), and whether they award ranking points. Understanding those distinctions is the key to understanding how team tennis fits into the calendar.
The Major Team Competitions
Davis Cup
The Davis Cup is the men’s national-team competition and the oldest of them all, first contested in 1900. Run by the ITF, it began as a two-nation contest and grew into a global event spanning well over a hundred countries. It remains the flagship of men’s team tennis. See the full breakdown in How the Davis Cup Works.
Billie Jean King Cup
The Billie Jean King Cup is the women’s equivalent of the Davis Cup — the premier women’s national-team competition, also run by the ITF. Founded in 1963 as the Federation Cup and renamed in 2020, its format has been deliberately aligned with the Davis Cup so the two play the same way. See How the Billie Jean King Cup Works.
United Cup
The United Cup is the newest of the major team events, launched in 2023 and run jointly by the ATP and WTA. It is a mixed-gender competition — men and women on the same national team — and opens the tennis season each January in Australia. Alone among the major team events, it awards ATP and WTA ranking points. See United Cup Explained.
Hopman Cup
The Hopman Cup is the historic mixed-team event, first contested in Perth in 1989, where it opened the season for three decades before being discontinued after 2019 and effectively replaced on the calendar by the United Cup. It has returned only intermittently since — revived in Nice in 2023 and held in Bari, Italy in 2025 — and awards no ranking points. Its ongoing status is uncertain rather than fixed. See Hopman Cup Explained.
How They Differ
The four competitions divide cleanly along a few lines:
| Competition | Teams | Run by | Ranking points | Calendar |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Davis Cup | Men | ITF | No | Qualifiers + November Finals |
| Billie Jean King Cup | Women | ITF | No | Qualifiers + September Finals |
| United Cup | Mixed | ATP / WTA | Yes | Season opener (January) |
| Hopman Cup | Mixed | ITF-sanctioned | No | Intermittent |
The cleanest way to hold it together: the Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup are the two ITF pillars, men’s and women’s, with matched formats. The United Cup is the tour-run, mixed, points-bearing season opener. The Hopman Cup is the historic mixed event whose modern revival has been sporadic.
Related Team Events
Two other team formats sit outside the national-team structure but round out the picture. The Laver Cup, launched in 2017, pits Team Europe against Team World in an exhibition format that awards no ranking points. Olympic tennis, held every four years, is contested for national medals, though it is played largely as an individual event with doubles and mixed-doubles team elements. Neither is a national-team cup in the Davis Cup mold, but both extend tennis’s team tradition.
Why Team Tennis Matters
For a sport built around individual achievement, the team competitions offer something the tour cannot: the chance to see players carry a nation rather than a ranking. That shift changes the emotional stakes of a match and produces some of tennis’s most memorable moments. The formats will keep evolving — team tennis has always been the most-revised corner of the calendar — but its place in the sport, as the counterweight to the individual tour, has held for more than a century.
Season Snapshot
(Volatile data — refresh this block only. As of mid-2026.)
- Davis Cup — most recent champion: Italy (2025)
- Billie Jean King Cup — most recent champion: Italy (2025, back-to-back)
- United Cup — most recent champion: Poland (2026, first title, def. Switzerland)
- Hopman Cup — most recent edition: Canada (2025, Bari); no 2026 edition confirmed
FAQ
What is team tennis? It is tennis played by national (or regional) teams rather than individuals, decided by a series of singles and doubles matches, with the result belonging to the country.
What are the main team tennis competitions? The Davis Cup (men), the Billie Jean King Cup (women), the United Cup (mixed), and the Hopman Cup (mixed, historic).
Which team event awards ranking points? The United Cup is the only major team competition that awards ATP and WTA ranking points.
What is the difference between the Davis Cup and the United Cup? The Davis Cup is a men’s ITF competition with no ranking points; the United Cup is a mixed-gender, tour-run season opener that does award points.
Is the Hopman Cup still played? It runs only intermittently. After decades in Perth through 2019, it has returned sporadically, and its future is uncertain.
