Before the Davis Cup, place at the Billie Jean King Cup its women’s version, Poland led by Iga Swiatek is one of the favorite nations to succeed Canada.
Who will succeed Canada? Before the Davis Cup, the final phase of the Billie Jean King Cup, the last major meeting of women’s tennis in 2024, begins this Wednesday in Malaga with a clash between Iga Swiatek’s Poland and the Spanish hosts of this team competition national.
“This is the first time I’ve participated.” in the final, “I can’t wait”the Polish leader rejoiced on Monday at a press conference. For her teammate Magda Linette, “It’s never easy to face the host country. But we are ready, we have already played against” Spain in the 2023 final phase of the BJK Cup (2-1 defeat), she added.
With world No.2 Iga Swiatek, five-time Grand Slam winner, but also world No. 25 Magdalena Frech and No. 38 Magda Linette, Polish captain Dawid Celt has one of the densest selections in this final phase. On the eve of its third consecutive final tournament, Poland has “experience and I think we will take our revenge” against the Spanish, Celt said on Monday.
Opposite, Spanish captain Anabel Medina Garrigues said Monday that her troops were preparing for the duel “very conscientiously”. “Playing at home is a privilege, the Andalusian spectators are a very, very good audience”assured the one who will leave her position (held since 2018) at the end of the competition. Finalist in 2023 and led to Malaga by world No. 4 Jasmine Paolini, Italy will also be one to watch. The transalpine selection is exempt from the first round and will face Romania or Japan in the quarter-finals, two nations that are a priori affordable in the absence of former world No.1 Naomi Osaka, injured.
Format change in 2025
As for the Canadian title holders, also exempt from the first round thanks to their first coronation in the BJK Cup in 2023, they will challenge either Germany or Great Britain in the quarter-finals.
Apart from Leylah Fernandez (31st), Canada will not, however, be able to count on any player in the top 100 in Malaga. Nor on the winner of the 2019 US Open Bianca Andreescu (132nd), whose withdrawal was made official on Tuesday.
Another last-minute absentee: the Czech Karolina Muchova (22nd), injured and replaced by Sara Bejlek (142nd), who will try to help her country win a 12th BJK Cup.
The most successful nation in the history of the competition with 18 crowns, the United States will enter the fray on Thursday against Slovakia, a first round that is a priori affordable for the «Team USA» led by Danielle Collins (11th). Captain of the American selection, Lindsay Davenport reminded his flock that the United States had only won the BJK Cup “only once since 2000”in 2017 against Belarus. “It’s definitely not enough (…) and we are clearly here to win the trophy again”assumed the former world No.1. In the event of victory, the Americans would challenge Australia, exempt from the first round.
The 2024 edition is the last before a change in the format of the competition created in 1963. From 2025, only eight nations will be competing in the final phase, compared to twelve currently. This alignment with the format of the final phase of the Davis Cup (the men’s equivalent of the BJK Cup) aims to reawaken spectator interest in this historic competition, by trying to transform it into “Tennis World Cup” according to the expression of its organizer, the International Tennis Federation (ITF).
The 2024 Davis Cup final (November 19-24), where Rafael Nadal will bid farewell to tennis, will also be played for the first time in the same city as that of the BJK Cup, and the ITF has made so that the two events partially overlap.
