Davis Cup Commitment Awards presented

London, Jan 29, 2013: The ITF, through its National Associations, will present further Davis Cup Commitment Awards during this weekend’s 2013 Davis Cup by BNP Paribas first round ties on Saturday 2 February.

This new award was conceived as part of the ITF’s 2013 Centenary celebrations, and will be presented to Davis Cup players who have shown long-standing dedication to representing their country in this prestigious competition. Each award recipient will have competed in a minimum of 20-home-and-away ties or 50 ties at any level of the competition (including Zone Group events) over their career.

The ITF presented the first seven trophies to players in an on-court presentation at the 100th Davis Cup Final in Prague last November. Among those presented with awards at last year’s final were Italy’s Nicola Pietrangeli, who heads the elite list of players having played 66 home or away ties for his country, and San Marino’s Domenico Vicini, who holds the record for the most ties played in all levels of the competition with a total of 87.

This weekend presentations will be made to the following players at their respective Davis Cup home ties before the doubles rubber on Saturday 2 February:

Argentina– Ricardo Cano, Jose Luis Clerc, Javier Frana, David Nalbandian

Belgium– Olivier Rochus, Filip de Wulf

Canada – Grant Connell, Sebastien Lareau, Daniel Nestor

Chinese Taipei – Hsu Huang-Jung

Ireland – Owen Casey, Sean Sorensen

Japan – Tsuyoshi Fukui,Satoshi Iwabuchi, Jun Kamiwazumi, Gouichi Motomura

Kazakhstan – Alexey Kedryuk

Monaco – Bernard Balleret

Peru –Luis Horna, Ivan Miranda, Jaime Yzaga

Poland– Mariusz Fyrstenberg, Marcin Matkowski

Portugal – Emanuel Couto, Joao Cunha-Silva, Rui Machado, Nuno Marques, Leonardo Tavares

Sri Lanka – Arjun Fernando

Uruguay – Federico Dondo, Marcel Felder, Marcelo Filippini, Diego Perez

In addition, Crown Prince Frederik ofDenmark will make a special presentation to Danish players Kenneth Carlsen and Michael Mortensen, and posthumous awards to Einer Ulrich, Jorgen Ulrich and Kurt Nielsen in Copenhagen on Tuesday 5 February.

A total of 299 players have already qualified to receive the award, of whom 252 are still alive. Presentations will be made to award winners at Davis Cup home ties throughout 2013.

The Commitment Award trophies are based on the design of the current Davis Cup trophy. All recipients will also be recognised on an honours board at the ITF headquarters in London and in a dedicated section on the official Davis Cup website.A full list of award winners can be viewed here

ITF President Francesco Ricci Bitti said: “The Davis Cup Commitment Award reflects the dedication by players for more than a century to represent their country in this prestigious competition. These players have continued to rise to the unique challenge of competing in a team environment in front of their home fans, and we believe that it is fitting to recognise their efforts in our centenary year.” —- ITF