Forest Hills Stadium (Photo: wikimedia commons)
Aug. 9, 2021 By Christian Murray
The prestigious Davis Cup tennis tournament will be coming back to Forest Hills for the first time since 1959.
A best-of-five match series between South Africa and Venezuela will take place at the historic Forest Hills Stadium on Sept. 18-19, the weekend after the conclusion of the U.S. Open. The West Side Tennis Club, a private tennis club based out of the famous stadium, is the host.
The event will be played on a hard court in the 13,000-seat stadium, which hosted the finals of the U.S. Championships and U.S. Open from 1923 to 1977.
The stadium last hosted the Davis Cup, an event where countries compete against one another, in 1959 when Rod Laver, Roy Emerson and Neale Fraser led Australia to the Davis Cup title with a 3-2 victory over the U.S. team led by Alex Olmedo, Butch Buchholz and Barry McKay.
The top South African players in the ATP rankings are Kevin Anderson, a former U.S. Open and Wimbledon finalist, who achieved a career-high ranking of No. 5 and is now No. 75; Lloyd Harris, ranked No. 49, who beat Rafael Nadal last week in Washington, D.C.; and former Australian Open and Wimbledon doubles finalist Raven Klaasen, who is ranked No. 23 in doubles.
Venezuela is led by No. 585-ranked Ricardo Rodriguez, the all-time leading Davis Cup player for his country.
“We could not be more excited to bring world class tennis back to the West Side Tennis Club, one of the most historic venues in American sports,” said West Side Tennis Club President Monika Jain.
“While Forest Hills is most synonymous as the former home of the U.S. Open, the West Side Tennis Club has also hosted many Davis Cup matches, Wightman Cup matches as well as the Tournament of Champions men’s event for many years. We are thrilled to add another chapter of our illustrious tennis history,” Jain added.
Tickets for the event can be found at ForestHillsProTennis.com. Special VIP hospitality, sponsorship, box seat and “Speak Easy” packages are available by emailing Weir-Smith at Jason@thewestsidetennisclub.com.
The first day of play will feature two best-of-three-set singles matches starting at 11 a.m. and the second day, also starting at 11 am, will feature the reverse two best-of-three-set singles matches and a best-of-three-set doubles match.
The winner will remain in the Davis Cup Group II for the 2022 Davis Cup campaign, two levels below the Davis Cup World Group that determines the Davis Cup champion in the Davis Cup World Finals in Madrid.
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