In 1899, four members of the Harvard University tennis team decided to challenge Britain. 

They could have happily continued matching themselves against fellow Ivy League players, but no. They had to stick it to the Brits.

The two nations' respective lawn tennis associations agreed, and one of the four Harvard players, Dwight F Davis, designed a tournament format and paid around $1,000 (£785/€880) out of his own pocket for a sterling silver trophy. 

Which was very decent of him.

The first match, between the United States and the British Isles, took place at the Longwood Circket Club in Boston, Massachusetts in 1900.  

The American team, including Davis, surprised the British by winning the first three matches. The rest is history…

But today marked the biggest moment in Davis Cup history since that initial big bang as around 120 delegates at the International Tennis Federation's (ITF) annual meeting in Orlando agreed to the radical proposals of the ITF President David Haggerty to create a new model for the competition.

Haggerty's plan will put an end to the current Davis Cup format in which competition is spread throughout the year and consists of a tiered event - with the top 16 teams competing in the World Group - and a series of knock-out matches involving two nations.

Under the new format, 18 teams will play in a week-long Davis Cup finale in late November at a single, neutral venue. 

The teams will be split into six groups of three. Six group winners and two runners-up will then advance to knock-out rounds.

Unlike current Davis Cup ties, which comprise four singles and one doubles, ties will feature only two singles and a doubles game.

Haggerty believes the revamped competition will effectively create a fifth Grand Slam, increase prize money and allow the Davis Cup to attract top players by freeing up space on the calendar.

The reforms have had the backing of a $3 billion (£2.3 billion/€2.6 million) partnership from the Kosmos investment group, founded by Barcelona footballer Gerard Pique and supported by Japanese billionaire Hiroshi Mikitani. 

They have also found favour with Serbia's 13-times Grand Slam winner Novak Djokovic.

Unsurprisingly the proposals that have now come to pass created a huge level of debate and dissension.

Past Australian Davis Cup captains and players including Rod Laver, John Newcombe and Lleyton Hewitt have all condemned the changes.

Newcombe, a five-time champion as a player, described the overhaul as "a recipe for the death of the Davis Cup as we know it" adding: "The Davis Cup is 118 years old and was the forerunner that made tennis into an international sport."

Hewitt described Haggerty's proposals as little more than a "money grab" which ignored the tournament's history.

Such was the level of debate in France, the reigning Davis Cup champions, that the French Tennis Federation (FFT) called for an emergency general meeting.

Bernard Giudicelli, the FFT President, oversaw the approval of the proposed changes by a margin of around 60 to 40.

A key ally of Haggerty's, Giudicelli was given leave by the ITF Board to remain in place at least until today's vote despite the fact that he has recently been found guilty of defamation in a French court. 

The ITF's constitution says no-one with a criminal charge against their name may remain on the board of directors.

Haggerty told AFP on Tuesday (August 14) that the overhaul would boost the ITF's ability to spread development funding across the globe, putting around $25 million (£20 million/€22 million) back into the sport.

"The ITF is the only organisation that puts money into the development of the game," Haggerty said. 

"And that's what this project enables us to do. The money that we make will be put back to the nations for their development programmes and the future of tennis."

He added that he had been encouraged by positive feedback from delegates in Florida this week.

"The mood is good," he said. "The reception has been very positive. We just want to do the right thing for tennis.

"The new model allows the ITF to fulfill the mission in a much better way.

"Having more resources to put behind the development of tennis is the most important thing for an international federation."

Haggerty added: "Change is difficult sometimes."

When the proposals were first announced in February, Haggerty told the New York Times: "If you go back 50 years ago, in Bournemouth they had the first open tennis event. 

"There had to have been a number of tennis leaders sitting around saying, 'jeez, tennis is okay, do we really need to make this change? What is it going to do to us? Is it good or bad?'

"You never know, so that strength of conviction, they had that at the time. 

"They took a risk, but look how tennis has changed. Perhaps in the future, we will look back on this and say the ITF board took such a risk."

The risk has now been taken. The judgement remains to be made.