Some of the best of tennis can be found in Davis Cup. Dreams can shatter or come true. Hearts can be teased, broken, or won. A country can signal its arrival on the world stage of tennis in just one event, which takes place over the course of four weekends throughout the year.

Nothing in tennis compares to the crowd at Davis Cup matches. There is no polite clapping here. There is no respect given to opponents. There is just a fan trying to help his country move into the next round.

And yet, due to its nature—best-of-five matches and scheduling shortly after Grand Slams—Davis Cup does not receive the full participation of everyone on tour, especially at the very top. Heroic moments sometimes don’t happen. The best tennis country in the world can be left with no player of a high caliber to compete.

Such was the case with Spain this past weekend. This nation has two of the top five players in the world, yet neither Rafael Nadal nor David Ferrer made the trip to Germany. (Nadal is injured, but he wouldn’t have played even if he had remained healthy through the Australian Open). And with that, the top tennis superpower fell in three rubbers to Germany. This is nothing against Germany, a very talented country that may have been able to contend even if Ferrer and Nadal had played. But the victory feels a little hollow without Spain living up to their juggernaut status.

Historic achievements sometimes happen because of seemingly random occurrences. Japan has never reached the Davis Cup quarterfinals before. Top-20 man Kei Nishikori has led this country to tennis prominence and helped give them their first real chance in the World Group. They were drawn against Canada, another up-and-coming tennis country. With leading Canadian stars Milos Raonic and Vasek Pospisil both injured, however, this potentially historic tie became almost a foregone conclusion.

Canada had an incredible run in Davis Cup last year, reaching their first-ever semifinal. Without their top two mainstays, though, they never stood a chance against Japan. Nishikori did not even have to be at his best to win both of his singles rubbers and a doubles rubber. So Japan’s first-ever World Group win didn’t come as a dramatic, hard-fought upset. Instead, it was a routine win over overmatched second-stringers.

Similarly, returns to prominence can also be lackluster. Great Britain was one of the premier tennis countries along with the United States and Australia until World War II. They largely fell off the map after that but rose again in the 1990s. Still, due to top players often sitting out of Davis Cup, Britain had not reached the Davis Cup quarterfinals since 1986. To put that in perspective, Andy Murray was not yet born in 1986.

Murray could have led this team back to the World Group in any of the last five years or more. Without Murray, though, this team has little depth to rely on. Since Murray never played in Britain’s World Group rubbers before, they never had a chance. But, with Murray playing and American No. 1 John Isner unable to play, Britain’s path to victory became much smoother. Thus, as with Japan, what could have been a triumphant breakthrough turned out to be routine.

On the other hand, we still see Davis Cup stories like Fabio Fognini’s performance this weekend. Fognini is incredibly fun to watch and very talented. But the Italian’s on-court demeanor, especially with a hostile crowd, leaves much to be desired. Yet he was a visitor in Argentina, where the Davis Cup fans are always raucous, and yet he managed to surprisingly pull out three victories. Fognini won his two singles rubbers and partnered Simone Bolelli to victory in their doubles rubber. While the Italians defeated an Argentine team without Juan Martin Del Potro, that does not negate how well Fognini played and how much he accomplished over the weekend.

This is the nature of Davis Cup. History is not always made by those who grab it. Sometimes it just falls into players’ laps. Rest assured, though, that for every underwhelming Davis Cup story, there is one equally heroic waiting just around the corner.