The opening round of the 2013 Davis Cup that took place from 1st to 3rd February was quite an eventful one. It had it all. Records were broken, upsets were caused, comebacks were made and all in all the fans were able to see some spectacular tennis.

The first team to qualify to the quarterfinals was France who produced a dominating display against Israel to win 5-0. It was an extremely strong performance from the Frenchmen who were playing under first time captain, Arnaud Clement. They sealed the victory on Saturday with a day to spare with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Richard Gasquet leading the way.

Growing up as a young tennis enthusiast the bedtime stories of heroes my family fed me at night weren't from Wimbledon or the US Open, but from the magical land of the Davis Cup where personal pride took a backseat to playing for the country. It is and shall always remain alongside the Olympics the one dream that any tennis player will want to come true.

The Davis Cup though has sadly been going through a period of decline, with a lot of senior pros passing it over in their sporting calendars. In the golden age, players carrying injuries would rather miss two weeks of the tour rather than disappoint their nation by not turning up for the flagship event. Such days are now long gone, and the pros in an attempt to keep the tradition of a team event alive are looking for a new avatar to replace the century old former extravaganza.

Ireland and Switzerland have both achieved considerable success in A1GP World Cup of Motorsport with the Swiss taking the 2007/08 championship with Neel Jani at the wheel and Ireland's Adam Carroll finally getting the job done in the 2008/09 season. Their two charismatic seat holders, Max Welti and Mark Gallagher, have never been ones to keep their feelings to themselves, here they reflect back on two seasons of highs and lows.

Q: So let's start easy. What makes your team so successful?
MARK GALLAGHER: "Well, I guess it's understanding all of the millions of things that have to come together to make it work. But most of all, it's getting the people to work together. One of the great points about

A1 Team Ireland's Adam Carroll drove two stunning laps to put the Celtic Tiger on pole position for both of tomorrow's A1GP Brands Hatch races, boosting the team's chances of lifting the World Cup of Motorsport tomorrow.

With four minutes to go in the first qualifying segment of the day, Malaysia's Aaron Lim was first to turn a wheel closely followed by the rest of the field making for a chaotic final few minutes. Netherlands' Jeroen Bleekemolen posted the quickest time with an impressive margin of 0.6 seconds on the rest of the field, with Ireland just behind in second. A1 Team Great Britain's Dan Clarke made a good start to the day recording the third-quickest time as qualifying got underway.

A1 Teams Switzerland and Monaco have both announced new commercial partners ahead of A1GP Gauteng, South Africa on 20 - 22 February.

Reigning champion Switzerland has confirmed that FORDAHL-FOQ Group, involved in the timing components for telecommunication systems, and cp eyewear and helmets will join its team.

"As a leading company in its business area, FORDAHL-FOQ aims at communicating at the highest level," said a team statement. "For two years, the group's advertising strategy is based on motorsport sponsoring. The synergies are obvious: in both fields, speed and accuracy are key elements.

"Swiss brand cp stands for trendy, innovative and at the same time highly professional manufacturing of

Round four of the 2008/09 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport season got underway at New Zealand's Taupo Motorsport Park today with reigning champion A1 Team Switzerland setting the early pace. Alexandre Imperatori started the day as the quickest rookie, while main driver Neel Jani ended the day quickest overall.

Swiss rookie Imperatori set the pace this morning with a lap of 1 minute 18.091 seconds, helped in part to being able to run a new set of tyres. Teams use two sets of tyres carried over from the previous A1GP race in the rookie session, however, with Switzerland's first lap exit from Sepang's Feature, the team had a new set of Michelins available to him this morning, which he us