The Billie Jean King Cup Finals will probably be held in Shenzhen, China, from 2025 to 2027, the Worldwide Tennis Federation stated Thursday.
It will likely be the primary time China has hosted the ladies’s crew competitors. The occasion was final held in Asia in 1989 in Tokyo, when it was referred to as the Fed Cup with 16 nations. A report 146 nations are set to compete in 2025.
The ITF stated the transfer helps the match’s objective of fostering cultural change, celebrating range and strengthening connections between athletes and followers worldwide.
“Having the Billie Jean King Cup Finals in Shenzhen is a dream come true for myself and different Chinese language tennis gamers,” Paris Video games gold medalist and world No. 5 Zheng Qinwen stated in a press release. “This occasion displays the unimaginable progress of tennis in China and highlights how ladies’s sports activities proceed to thrive right here. I am unable to wait to see the way it evokes extra younger women to select up a tennis racket and dream huge.”
The premier ladies’s worldwide crew competitors passed off in Malaga, Spain, final yr, with world No. 4 Jasmine Paolini steering Italy to a fifth title. China as host and Italy as reigning champion will routinely qualify for the Finals.
“Shenzhen embodies the spirit of development and innovation that’s on the core of the Billie Jean King Cup, increasing the attain of tennis and championing the ability of girls’s sports activities,” twelve-time Grand Slam champion Billie Jean King stated.
Qualifying ties will probably be performed throughout six group occasions starting April 7 and can encompass three groups per group. Every three-day occasion will probably be held in a single location and performed on a round-robin foundation.
The host nations for the qualifiers will probably be Australia, Czechia, Japan, Netherlands, Poland and Slovakia. The groups ending on the prime of every group will advance to the Finals whereas groups ending in second and third will compete within the playoffs in November.
Dates for the 2025 Finals haven’t been introduced.