April 2, 1999: The day Roger Federer made his Davis Cup debut

April 2, 1999, marked a pivotal moment in tennis history: the Davis Cup debut of a then 17-year-old Roger Federer. Ranked 123rd in the world at the time, Federer, representing Switzerland, faced Italy in a first-round tie. He secured his inaugural Davis Cup victory by defeating world No. 48 Davide Sanguinetti in a four-set battle, with scores of 6-4, 6-7, 6-3, 6-4. This triumph was the first of his remarkable 40 singles wins in the Davis Cup, a prestigious team competition he would eventually help Switzerland win 15 years later, in 2014.