Luxembourg at the 1950 Davis Cup

The Davis Cup- a knock-out tennis tournament- has completed its journey for more than a century now. The tournament between the teams of men players from the qualifying participating countries from the US and Europe. The nature of event goes thus- A team triumphant in the intra-zonal competitions round from the side one takes on another winning team from other intra-zone, which are playing the Inter-Zonal Final. The Inter-Zonal winner qualifies for the Grand Finale to be played in the Challenger Tournament against the previous year’s Champion team. There is a distinct competition on the lines of the Davis Cup for Women’s segment, which is known as Fed Competition.

The 39th Davis Cup Tournament came live in the year 1950, which had the participation of in all 26 qualifying teams consisting of 22 from Europe and 4 from the US. The main contenders were Poland, Israel, Ireland, Monaco, Peru, Philippines, Norway, Hungary, Netherlands, Sweden, Belgium, Finland, Yugoslavia, Austria, Great Britain, Italy, Luxembourg, Denmark, Egypt, and France & Switzerland et al. Luxembourg team had been an entrant from European Zone, entered the second round and was dominated by Italy in all facets with the score of 0-5, alongside which the Egypt lost to Denmark with 0-3 score and in the 3rd second round match the France defeated Switzerland by 4-2. In the Quarter Final Rounds Poland, Sweden, Italy and Denmark marched ahead defeating their respective rivals Ireland, Philippines, Belgium and France. From amongst the Semi-Finals winners entering the Zonal Finale i.e. the Denmark and Sweden teams, Sweden went ahead winning and was blown off by the Inter-Zonal final entrants Australia. In the Grand Finale of Challenge Round the prolific Australians sent the US team packing.

The Luxembourg team which was emerged from European qualifying team, has had the lack-luster performance, who could not move ahead of the Second Round. There advancement even to the Quarter Finals was halted by Italy with 5-0 score. The Luxembourg team did not seem to have a grit and perseverance to succeed, who rather showed no heart to even stand before Italy with some stiff-resistance and gave up meekly.