sentences:  Australia then defeated the defending champions Italy in the final to win their 24th title overall and their first since 1973.The final was held at the White City Stadium in Sydney, Australia on 2-4 December.Throughout the 1960s and 1970s the Davis Cup had been affected by a number of protests and defaults by teams showing their opposition to the apartheid policies and white minority rule in South Africa and Rhodesia, and the human rights violations which occurred in Chile under Augusto Pinochet's military junta.