Davis Cup Nations Ranking

I never knew how, and never got interested in how the ITF would make the draw for the Davis Cup. Having visited the official website recently, I learned that there is actually a Davis Cup Nations Ranking. The ranking system was launched at the end of 2001 and is published following every Word Group round. The sole purpose of the ranking is for seeding at all levels of the Davis Cup competition. The website details how the ranking is arrived at. Suffice to know that there is a point system that measures the success of all nations participating in the competition over a 'rolling' four year period. Recent performance weigh more heavily. In the latest nations ranking released before the Davis Cup final, Europe dominated the top 50 with 26 nations. Asia has 9 followed by South America with 8, North America with 4, Oceania with 2, and Africa with 1. See the list below for the top 50 in the Davis Cup nations ranking:

Rank Nation
1 Spain
2 USA
3 Russia
4 Czech Republic
5 Argentina
6 Croatia
7 Israel
8 Germany
9 Sweden
10 France
11 India
12 Switzerland
13 Serbia
14 Belgium
15 Australia
16 Ecuador
17 Chile
18 Brazil
19 Korea, Rep.
20 Austria
21 Uzbekistan
22 Romania
23 Netherlands
24 South Africa
25 Japan
26 Italy
27 Ukraine
28 Slovak Republic
29 Peru
30 Colombia
31 Belarus
32 Canada
33 Uruguay
34 Poland
35 Kazakhstan
36 Great Britain
37 Thailand
38 China, P.R.
39 Chinese Taipei
40 Philippines
41 Latvia
42 FYR Macedonia
43 Dominican Republic
44 Finland
45 Mexico
46 New Zealand
47 Monaco
48 Paraguay
49 Georgia
50 Cyprus