The Davis Cup Finals Group Stage is the next on the slate with five different countries hosting the first round of action between 12-17 September. The second is set for 21-26 November, 2023 and our preview runs through the action and who will take part.

Carlos Alcaraz v Novak Djokovic was a potential and now both may not play at all, with the Spaniard in particular withdrawing after his loss to Daniil Medvedev at the US Open. Still many teams are very much strong and ready for the task at hand.

16 nations will take part in the finals. The ties will be contested in a best of three rubbers format and are played on one day. Two singles followed by a doubles is the name of the game. Canada are the defending champions, both they and Australia as 2022 finalists qualify outright.

As do the host countries in Italy, Great Britain, Spain and Croatia. The seeds are based on Davis Cup ranking, the top four being Canada, Australia, Spain and Croatia. The remaining 12 nations are divided into Pots 2-4 according to the latest rankings.

But the four host nations are not placed in the same groups. The two wildcards are Italy and Spain, with the 12 winners of the qualifying round also taking their spots varied from Serbia to the United States.

It is then split into four groups who will play it out over the two blocks with one winner crowned. But who out of the big names are involved?

Group A sees Canada, Chile, Italy and Sweden and with no ATP tournament over the next week (starting 11 September), it is very much the strongest many can field.

Top named players in Group A are Denis Shapovalov (Canada), Nicolas Jarry (Chile), Lorenzo Musetti (Italy) and Elias Ymer (Sweden).

In Group B, it is Australia, France, Great Britain and Switzerland, with Alex de Minaur, Ugo Humbert, Cameron Norrie and Stan Wawrinka leading that quartet in terms of ranking.

But in particular in Group B, Andy Murray, Jack Draper, Dan Evans for Britain, Arthur Fils for France and US Open revelation Dominic Stricker will be involved, the latter for Switzerland.

Group C is where it gets interesting also with Novak Djokovic currently slated to play, but as of time of writing, he is in the US Open final. So will he play? Time will tell. Alejandro Davidovich Fokina for Spain and Jiri Lehecka for Czech Republic are the other leading lights with South Korea also in that group.

Group D sees Croatia, Finland, Netherlands and United States, with the latter albeit sans Taylor Fritz including Frances Tiafoe, Tommy Paul and Mackenzie McDonald as well as Rajeev Ram after his previous well documented snub.

The knockout stage is played in November in Malaga, Spain so this sets it all up nicely.