Bulgaria at the 2002 Federation Cup

The Federation Cup started in 1963 as a tournament between United States and Great Britain. It is managed by the International Tennis Federation on similar lines as that of Davis Cup. The various participating countries played in the qualifying stage against themselves, resulting from which the entrants to the World group stage were decided. The 2002 championship was the 40th edition of the Federation Cup. Bulgaria started its international tennis career in 1966. A total of 83 nations participated in the tournament. Bulgaria at the 2002 Federation Cup was one of the better performing yet unfortunate teams.

Bulgaria at the 2002 Federation Cup was placed in the Group I of the Europe/Africa zone. In the first round robin match against Portugal, Bulgaria won the contest by a huge margin of 3-0. Next, Bulgaria was again the winner against Georgia by 2-1 in the second round robin match. The third qualifier again resulted in the Bulgaria’s invincible win against Estonia by 2-1. However, Bulgaria lost the last qualifier to Ukraine by 1-2. Therefore the inconsistency of performance led to the debacle for the Bulgaria at the 2002 championship.

Bulgaria at the 2002 Federation Cup was placed in the Group I of the Europe/Africa zone with other nations like Belarus, Bosnia/Herzegovina, Estonia, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Yugoslavia, Georgia, Greece, Israel, Portugal and Turkey. Bulgaria was in good touch and form in its initial round robin matches. The caliber displayed till loosing the last qualifying match to Ukraine was well in tune with the winning traditions. However, loosing the match to Ukraine ended the flawless spree of Ukraine and thus restricted Ukraine from moving on to the next round. Thus Bulgaria was ousted from the 2002 Federation Cup.