First decades in Davis Cup (1924–1967) Hungary competed in its first Davis Cup in
1924 and was stuck in the first round for five years (not counting an automatic bye). They broke the curse with the first and convincing 5–0 win against
Norway realized by
Béla Von Kehrling in the major part. In
1929 they cruised to their first semifinal losing to
Great Britain in a close 3–2 (two singles absolved by Von Kehrling) falling only in the fifth rubber. It took another 20 years to relive the success in
1949 (including the five-year vacancy period during the Second World War) this time losing to
France in the semis. The core of the team was
1947 French Open champion
József Asbóth. In 1956 Hungary was absent from the Cup because of the
Hungarian Revolution of 1956. In 1966 a record attendance visited the Hungary-Great Britain quarterfinal in Budapest, where a crowd of 20,000 spectators supported the András Szikszay-István Gulyás Davis Cup team during the four-day tie. A tough weekend started on Saturday 14 May for the multiple champions Brits, who had three-time Major semifinalist
Mike Sangster losing their first match in five sets to István Gulyás. They turned to 2–1 on the same day but on Sunday András Szikszay also defeated Sangster leaving the decision to the fifth final tie, which was postponed to Monday. In a four set match Gulyás started well taking the first one 18–16, but
Roger Taylor finished in three easier sets. English team captain
Headley Baxter remarked that although they won they hadn't been forced into such a tough fight for years. Just two weeks later Gulyás had his first and lone Grand Slam final in the
French Open losing only to
Tony Roche of Australia. Members •
Béla Von Kehrling •
József Asbóth •
Elek Straub •
Emil Ferenczy •
Imre Zichy •
Emil Gábori •
Pál Aschner •
Imre Takáts •
Kálmán Kirchmayer •
Jenő Péteri •
Aurél Kelemen •
György Dallos •
Zoltán Katona •
Kálmán Fehér •
András Ádám-Stolpa •
Mihály Csikós •
Dezső Vad •
Antal Jancsó •
István Gulyás •
István Sikorszki •
Ferenc Komáromy •
András Szikszay •
Attila Korpás •
Péter Szőke From open-era tennis to formation of World Group (1968–1980) 22 years after the last attempt in
1971 the third semifinal challenge was left unexploited for the team as the
Federal Republic of Germany took the first three matches in two 5-sets and a 4-sets contests. The tie was saved by
Szabolcs Baranyi (the present day captain) in the fifth match evading total defeat. It was also the last Davis Cup for veteran player
István Gulyás who fought in 61 matches for 14 years. Four years later Hungary repeatedly advanced to the semis by winning three consecutive rounds (Hungary had to get out from the preliminary round) but were stopped by
Czechoslovakia. The breakthrough came in the next year when Hungary had a chance to advance into the
Inter-Zonal Zone in the
Europe Zone B Final. The
Péter Szőke,
János Benyik (
1995 captain) and
Balázs Taróczy (the only Hungarian winner in the tie) trio had to battle comrade socialist country
Soviet Union. Though the soviets won the qualifier 4–1 they stepped back from the Inter-Zonal Zone first round versus
Chile. Hungary had to wait two more years to get a second try in the
final of the 1978 Europe Zone A against 1975 one-time champions
Sweden. Three times
Wimbledon and
French Open champion and former
World number one Björn Borg backed up the Swedes. The Taróczy-Szőke duo won the doubles but the rest of the matches were lost. Members •
Balázs Taróczy •
Péter Szőke •
Szabolcs Baranyi •
Róbert Machán •
István Gulyás •
János Benyik •
Zoltán Kuharszky •
András Szikszay Introduction of World Group and Hungary entering (1981–1996) 1981–93 seasons The era was dominated by the play of two-time GS doubles champion
Balázs Taróczy (1973–'86) and Lányi-Markovits ('87–'93) and the introduction of the all-time youngest player
Sándor Noszály. The team had four fruitless attempts to advance to the World Group (lost to
New Zealand,
Denmark and two times to
Spain) and had to defend one Europe Group I – Relegation Play-off (def.
Belgium). Due to the lack of tie breaks the Taróczy-Machán doubles hold the record for the
Most Games In Rubber in the third one of the 1985 quarterfinal with
Egypt. Though the Egyptians had won it the Hungarians made a comeback from 2–1 and turned to 3–2. After the induction of tie-break
László Markovits set this record in singles as well in the quarterfinals of the 1992 Euro/African Group I. It was also a defeat in the 5-set opening match against
Poland with the final set lasting 14–12 (the final set tie-break still hadn't been accepted). The outcome was 3–2 to Hungary. The next step was taking over
Great Britain in the second round in Hungary. It was Lányi's last appearance in the Davis Cup. The Brits were composed of
Jeremy Bates,
Mark Petchey and
Chris Wilkinson. The quartet of Krocskó/Noszály/Lányi-Markovits represented Hungary. All the Englishmen were higher ranked than the Hungarian best József Krocskó. Their doubles were better as well. It was a close win for Hungary finishing the tie in the decider 3 straight sets win of Noszály on Wilkinson. The team reached had the opportunity to qualify for the World Group for the sixth time of their run. The only change in the team was the substitution of Markovits/Lányi doubles for Viktor Nagy partnering singles player Sándor Noszály. Markovits remained in reserve. The match was played in outside red court in the UTE Stadium in Budapest. The Argentines were well-known of
Guillermo Pérez Roldán (defended Casablanca title in March vs.
El Aynaoui on clay) and
Javier Frana (champion of
Movistar Open in February on clay and '92 Olimpic bronze medalist for doubles) both inside the top 50–100 (#63, #82, #72 dbl. respectively). They were complemented by former top 10 player
Alberto Mancini (#112 The first match was easily won by Noszály in three sets. He was in good form as he'd almost won the Budapest. In the second duel Krocskó pushed the Hungarians to a 2–0 lead by a 3 set win over Mancini, who held himself well in the first until the tie break, while gradually collapsing for the third set allowing a double break for Krocskó. The hope remained for the South-Americans after the fast doubles win over Noszály/Nagy, who played together for the first time and was on significantly low doubles rank for of 468 for Noszály and 715 for Nagy. Challenger on 19 September. The two had 134 positions difference in the ATP list at the time. The Argentine captain Francisco Mastelli decided to pick Frana instead of Perez-Roldan because of an injury for the crucial fourth rubber. After the match Krocskó said on the decider:"I prepared profoundly on Frana, because we suspected the opponent change upon injury. I knew if I could return his serves there will be no problem. I wasn't afraid when the third set had gone, because I had the whole match under control". The Hungarian captain considered the qualification a huge virtuosity, which he'd never dreamed of.
1994 season In its first year of being promoted to World Group the Hungarians had to play with
France in Besançon. The French had
Henri Leconte competing for singles,
Olivier Delaître for doubles and
Arnaud Boetsch for both. Markovits returned to partner with Viktor Nagy. The only match won by Krocskó against former top 5 Leconte (#49 that week) in three straight sets. All five matches were in straight sets. The same result came to happen in the play off against
Italy in September at the Római parti Tennis Academy, Budapest. It was József Krocskó for the second time who provided the only win in a two per three sets final match over
Renzo Furlan, who was 38th on the ATP list. The team was relegated to Europe Group as a consequence.
World Group 1995–1996 Season The team was at its rise under the leadership of team captain and coach János Benyik. With his help the team reached the highest level group of Davis Cup and achieved remarkable victories over notable teams. In 1995 the team had only one match because of their previous relegation from World Group. In the Euro/African Group I 1st Round they passed through
Portugal and get a way back to the elite. The match took place in the Vasas stadium in Budapest. The Portugal tennis didn't soared at the moment with none of the native players inside the top 100. Their highest ranked player didn't step on court this time (
N. Marques) thus all the engageable players were around the top 200 (actually 2 and 4 places inside the top 200, while the reserve player was 9 spots behind the top 250). However, in doubles they were much better (Köves/Markovits-Couto/Cunha-Silva) and because of the Davis Cup match up rules the lowest ranked Hungarian player had to beat his highest and better Portugal counterpart (Krocskó-
Cunha-Silva). Contrary to the expectations these two matches was won by Hungary and was completed by the third win at the fourth rubber by Sándor Noszály over João Cunha-Silva (the two frontmen). The group advanced again to the play-offs (called World Group – Qualifying 1st round). The biggest accomplishment of this team was the qualification to the
World Group in a Play-off tie against the Australian team, whose rank and seed weren't determined by the actual Davis Cup rules, can be described the best by their flawless performance in the play-offs (thus this marked the first time for them to ever falling out of the World Group) and by the total Davis Cup champion titles they'd got (26 final victories, more than any other nation). World number one doubles partners Mark Woodforde-Todd Woodbridge (whose singles rank were #39-#36 respectively) were accompanied by Patrick Rafter (#46), They left out of the stack 1993 finalist member
Richard Fromberg (who became active again after two years break) and
Jason Stoltenberg due to his shoulder injury. The most anticipated Hungarian player was Sándor Noszály who reached the semifinals of
Bucharest Open – part of ATP International series – after defeating
Albert Costa and
Sergi Bruguera. He was also at his peak on the world rankings at the 95th position. He remembered ten years after as arriving tired to his first match because he had 5 days of rest after the aforementioned Romanian tournament. He was joined by József Krocskó (#192), who called himself a "Davis Cup specialist", a name referring to his better results when it came to represent his country. Finally the Köves/Márkovits duo was added to the roster. Hungary was degraded to Group II in 1997 after being defeated by
Ukraine 3–2. In 1999 they leveled up again but only for one year, in which they had two defeats to
Andrei Pavel's
Romania and
Jarkko Nieminen's
Finland. On 11 July 2010 Hungary avoided relegation against
Macedonia from Europe/Africa Group II. In 2011 the team advanced to the play-off of Europe/Africa Group II after two successful ties against
Cyprus and
Belarus before failing to be promoted against
Great Britain led by
Andy Murray in singles and
Fleming–
Hutchins in doubles. In
2012 they were eliminated in the second round by
Latvia who reversed the match after being 2–0 down with back to back victories by
Ernest Gulbis and
Andis Juška in doubles and in both singles in the second and third day. On
7 April 2013 Hungary relegated to Europe Zone Group III, after they defeated by
Luxembourg. In 2017, Hungary returned to the world group by upsetting a strong Russian team 3–1, thus ending their 20 years absence in the top tier. Members •
Kornél Bardóczky •
Gergely Kisgyörgy •
Attila Sávolt •
Sebő Kiss •
Gábor Köves •
Ádám Kellner •
Attila Balázs •
László Fonó • György Balázs •
Dénes Lukács •
Róbert Varga •
Balázs Veress •
Zoltán Böröczky •
Norbert Mazány •
József Krocskó •
Márton Fucsovics •
Gábor Jaross •
Zsolt Tatár •
László Markovits •
Norbert Pákai == Results and fixtures==