The International Tennis Federation (ITF) announced on March 2 that it has revised the dead rubber policy for all Davis Cup ties starting with this weekend’s Davis Cup by BNP Paribas World Group first round and 25 zone group ties on 4-6 March.
The new policy states that if a tie is decided after the fourth rubber (ie one nation has a winning 3-1 lead after the first match on Sunday) and the fourth rubber lasts at least four sets, the fifth rubber will not be played unless both teams agree otherwise.
All five rubbers will still be played if one nation has a winning 3-0 lead after Saturday, or the tie is decided after the fourth rubber and the fourth rubber lasts only three sets. All dead rubbers will continue to be the best of three tiebreak sets.
The dead rubber policy previously applied to the Davis Cup Final only, but has now been extended to include all ties in the World Group, Zone Group I and Zone Group II. A total of 33 ties will be played this weekend, daviscup.com reported.
Argentina (Nalbandian, Chela, Schwank and Monaco) will rival Romania (Hanescu, Crivoi, Ungur, Tecau) in Davis Cup 1/8 final on March 4-6.
The drawing of the tie will take place on March 3.
