Billie Jean King Cup Finals: All you need to know about the women’s ‘World Cup of Tennis’

The 2023 Billie Jean King Cup Finals, held between November 7-12 at the Estadio La Cartuja in Seville, Spain, features 12 teams competing in four round-robin groups of three, with the winners advancing on to the semi-finals.

What is the Billie Jean King Cup?

You may remember it by its previous name of the Federation Cup, or its abbreviated form – Fed Cup.

In 2020 the competition was renamed to honour 39-time Grand Slam champion Billie Jean King – who won it seven times as a player and four times as a captain.

Founded in 1963, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the ITF, it has become the world’s largest annual team competition in women’s sport and this year boasted participation from 134 nations.

Who are the teams playing this year?

Switzerland (Defending champions)
Australia (Last year’s finalists)
Canada
Czech Republic
France
Germany
Italy
Kazakhstan
Poland (Wildcard)
Slovenia
Spain
USA

Where are Great Britain?

Following their defeat to France in the Qualifiers back in April, the Great Britain will be looking to bounce back with a victorious performance against Sweden in a Play-Off tie.

It will take place at the Copper Box Arena, between November 11-12, with each tie consisting of five rubbers.

Sweden booked their spot in the Play-Offs after topping their group at the Europe/Africa Group I event in Antalya, Turkey back in April, where they won five of their six ties.

How does the format work?

The 12 teams are split into four round-robin groups, and the winners of each group will advance to the semi-finals ahead of the final.

All ties will consist of three matches – two singles, followed by doubles.

What are the Groups & Teams?

What do you need to watch out for?

There are some very strong and experienced teams ready to do battle in Seville.

Team USA might be missing US Open champion Coco Gauff, but they are not lacking for Slam champions and finalists with Sloane Stephens, Sofia Kenin and Madison Keys heading their line-up.

Kazakhstan and the Czech Republic boast a brace of Wimbledon champions – Elena Rybakina and Marketa Vondrousova.

Rybakina and Vondrousova will have to hot-foot it from Cancun, where the season-ending WTA Finals will be taking place.

Belatedly announced as the venue for the curtain-closing finale, there are no direct flights from Cancun to Seville, and there has been a lot of tension around the clash of dates.

“We’ve [the ITF] had our date for a long time, I think you should ask the WTA – they’re the ones that put their date in a few weeks [ago],” King told reporters, ahead of the Billie Jean King Cup Finals.

“As far as our sport, I think we all need to figure out a better calendar for the players and everybody knowing what’s going to happen, because you can’t start making these decisions on the finals in like September. It’s only fair. Can you imagine if a major didn’t know its dates?”

The Billie Jean King Cup starts on November 7, with last year’s finalists Australia opening the tournament against Slovenia, while defending champions Switzerland take on Czech Republic.

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