A total of 12 qualifying ties were played by 24 teams to finalise the group stage line-up, scheduled for September 12 to 17.

Last year's winners Canada, runners-up Australia and wildcards Italy and Spain automatically qualified for the Finals.

Hosts Germany lost the first rubber at the Arena Trier as world number 49 Marc-Andrea Hüsler beat Oscar Otte 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 on the hard court surface.

The three-times Davis Cup winners Germany hit back through Olympic champion Alexander Zverev, who beat Stan Wawrinka 6-4, 6-1, and doubles pair Andreas Mies and Tim Pütz who saw off Dominic Stricker and Wawrinka 6-7, 6-3, 6-4.

Hüsler forced a decider with an impressive 6-2, 7-6 victory over Zverev, before three-time Grand Slam winner and former Olympic champion Wawrinka, playing in the tournament for the first time in eight years, rolled back the years and overcame Daniel Altmaier 6-3, 5-7, 6-4.

There were surprises involving seventh seeds Kazakhstan and eighth seeds Belgium.

Kazakhstan were knocked out 3-1 by Chile at the Campus Trentino in La Serena, while South Korea overturned a 2-0 deficit to stun Belgium 3-2 at the Olympic Tennis Court in Seoul.

World number 237 Hong Seong-chan belied his ranking 122 places below Zizou Bergs to claim a 6-3, 7-6 win and clinch a famous victory for South Korea.

It was a famous day for Finland too, who qualified for the Davis Cup Finals for the first time by beating Argentina 3-1 at the Espoo Metro Areena, Emil Ruusuvuori featuring in two singles and a doubles win.

The 2021 runners-up and top seeds in qualifying Croatia earned a comfortable 3-1 home victory against Austria at Centar Zamet in Rijeka, Borna Ćorić securing their place at the Davis Cup Finals with a 7-6, 6-2 victory against former US Open champion Dominic Thiem.

Second seeds France required all five rubbers to win 3-2 away to Hungary at the Multifunctional Arena in Tatabánya, Ugo Humbert triumphing 6-3, 6-3 in the decider against Fábián Marozsán.

The 32-times Davis Cup champions United States had no issues overcoming Uzbekistan 4-0 at the Olympic Tennis School in Tashkent.

Australian Open semi-finalist Tommy Paul featued with a 6-1, 7-6 victory over Khumoyun Sultanov.

World number 11 Cameron Norrie overcame Nicolás Barrientos 6-2, 7-5 and Nicolás Mejía 6-4, 6-4 to help Great Britain come from behind to win 3-1 at the Pueblo Viejo Country Club in Cota against Colombia.

Serbia whitewashed Norway 4-0 at the Oslo Tennisarena, and Sweden eased past Bosnia and Herzegovina 3-1 at the Royal Tennis Hall in Stockholm.

The Netherlands cruised past Slovakia 4-0 at MartiniPlaza in Groningen, and the other qualifying spot went to Czech Republic, for whom Australian Open quarter-finalist starred in a 3-1 win away to Portugal at the Complexo Municipal de Ténis in Maia.

The Davis Cup format has undergone several tweaks since the International Tennis Federation entered a lucrative long-term partnership with Kosmos in 2018, moving away from the home-and-away format.

However, this 25-year partnership was ended after just five years last month.

The 16 qualified teams for this year's tournament are set to compete in the group stage across four cities, with the eight best-performing teams advancing to the knockout stage in Málaga from November 21 to 26.