Davis Cup: Serbia and Croatia fail to qualify GETTY IMAGES

The qualifying round for the group stage of the 2024 Davis Cup Finals ended this weekend with the surprise exit of the Balkan nations. Croatia and Serbia, without Djokovic, were knocked out.

A weekend of qualifying tennis for the group stage of the 2024 Davis Cup Finals has ended in a major upset. Serbia and Croatia, the second and third seeds respectively in the Davis Cup qualifiers, have been eliminated from the next stage in September. The traditional home-and-away, head-to-head format of the qualifying stage resulted in the upset defeats of the Balkan teams, who were among the favourites to at least reach the group stage of the 2024 finals, to be held from 10-15 September.

Serbia, without world number one Novak Djokovic but with a competitive team including Kecmanovic, Djere and Lajovic, went down 4-0 to Slovakia. Croatia, with former world number three Marin Cilic and the formidable doubles duo of Dodig-Pavic, went down 3-1 to Belgium. Belgium and Slovakia now join Italy, the 2023 champions, and Australia, the runners-up, as well as the invited teams from Great Britain and Spain.

Another surprise was Brazil's victory in Sweden to book their place in the final for the first time. The South Americans beat one of the favourites 3-1, with their star player Thiago Monteiro completing a remarkable comeback against Elias Ymer (4-6, 6-4, 6-2).  Argentina almost pulled off another upset against Kazakhstan, but Sebastian Baez saved two match points in the final match in Rosario (Santa Fe, Argentina) to beat 338th-ranked Dmitry Popko 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (6). Argentina also returned to the World Group Finals with this triumph.

The remaining matches were more predictable. Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, the United States, Finland and France all progressed with wins over South Korea (3-1), Hungary (2-3), Switzerland (3-2), Israel (4-0), Ukraine (0-4), Portugal (3-1) and China Taipei (0-4).  The final match of the day was a classic Pacific clash between Peru and Chile, which ended in the early hours of Monday morning in Europe. An outstanding performance from Jarry (top 20) and Tobio in the decider sealed Chile's place in the Davis Cup World Group for the second year running.

The 16 qualifying nations for the group stage of the 2024 Davis Cup Finals have been announced. The event will take place from 10-15 September in four yet-to-be-decided cities, with the top eight teams progressing to the Final, which will be held in Malaga from 19-24 November 2024.

The 16 teams in the World Group:

-Italy (defending champions)

-Australia (runners-up in the last edition).

-Great Britain (invited).

-Spain (invited).

-Canada.

-Slovakia.

-Belgium.

-Germany.

-Netherlands.

-Czech Republic.

-United States.

-Finland.

-France.

-Argentina.

-Brazil.

-Chile.