Billie Jean King Cup facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Billie Jean King Cup

Sport	Tennis
Founded	1963; 62 years ago (1963)
No. of teams	8 (World Group) 99 (total 2016)
Countries	ITF member nations
Most recent champion(s)	Canada (1st title)
Most titles	United States (18 titles)

The Billie Jean King Cup (also called the BJK Cup) is the biggest international team competition in women's tennis. It started in 1963 as the Federation Cup. This was to celebrate the 50th birthday of the International Tennis Federation (ITF).

The name changed to the Fed Cup in 1995. Then, in September 2020, it was renamed again. This time, it honored Billie Jean King, a famous former World No. 1 tennis player. The Billie Jean King Cup is the largest yearly women's international team sports event. Many countries compete in it. Katrina Adams is the current Chairperson.

The Czech Republic was very strong in the 2010s. They won six of ten competitions during that time. The men's version of this event is the Davis Cup. Only a few countries have won both Cups at the same time. These include the Czech Republic, Canada, Australia, Russia, and the United States.

How the Billie Jean King Cup Started

Old logo from the Fed Cup era

The idea for a women's team tennis competition came from Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman in 1919. Her idea wasn't used at first. But she kept trying. In 1923, she gave a trophy for a yearly match between the United States and Great Britain. This event was called the Wightman Cup.

Later, Nell Hall Hopman picked up Mrs. Wightman's original idea. Nell was the wife of Harry Hopman, a famous captain for the Australian Davis Cup team. In 1962, a British woman living in the U.S., Mary Hardwick Hare, showed that many people wanted this event. She convinced the ITF that a team championship played over one week in a different place each year was a great idea.

So, 40 years after Wightman's first idea, a women's Davis Cup-style event finally happened. In 1963, the ITF started the Federation Cup. It celebrated the ITF's 50th anniversary. All countries could join, and it quickly became very popular.

The first event had 16 countries. Top players supported it from the start. It was held at the Queen's Club in London. The first match was between Australia and the United States. Famous Grand Slam champions like Darlene Hard, Billie Jean King, Margaret Smith, and Lesley Turner played for their countries. The United States won the first year. But Australia won seven of the next eleven championships. Around 1980, the United States started to win many more titles. They set a very high standard for other teams.

Petra Kvitová with the trophy after winning the Fed Cup in 2011.

The first Federation Cup had no prize money. Teams had to pay their own costs. But 16 teams still joined. When sponsors came along, more teams joined. The Colgate Group sponsored it in 1976. From 1981 to 1994, the Japanese company NEC was the sponsor. By 1994, 73 nations were competing. The host country often built special tennis places for the event. This helped grow tennis in those countries.

In 1992, a new way to qualify was added. Teams played in regional groups. In 1995, the event's name became shorter, the Fed Cup. A new home-and-away format was adopted, like the Davis Cup. This meant women could play for their country in their own country. There have been small changes since 1995. The 2005 format has a World Group I and World Group II, each with eight nations. They play home-and-away matches. Three regional groups also compete. Teams can move up or down based on their results.

The 2021 event offered US$12 million in prize money.

How the Competition Works

Many nations enter the BJK Cup each year. But only 16 countries make it to the top groups. These are the World Group and World Group II. Each group has eight countries.

Here is how teams qualify:

• World Group: The four teams that win their first-round matches stay in the World Group for the next year. The teams that lose play against the winners from World Group II. This decides who moves up or down for the next year.
• World Group II: The four teams that win their matches play against the losers from World Group I. This also decides who moves up or down. The four teams that lose their World Group II matches play against winners from the Zonal competitions. This decides who moves up to World Group II or down to the Zonal events.

The BJK Cup Committee decides which teams are seeded (ranked higher). This is based on the ITF BJK Cup Nations Ranking.

Below the World Group and World Group II, teams play in Zonal Competition events. These are split into three areas: The Americas Zone, the Asia/Oceania Zone, and the Europe/Africa Zone. Each zone has Group I (higher) and Group II (lower). The Europe/Africa Zone also has a Group III.

In these Zonal Groups, teams are put into smaller pools. They play against each other in a round-robin format. This means everyone plays everyone else in their pool. The exact rules for each Group event can change. It depends on how many teams are playing. Two teams from Europe/Africa Group I move up to the World Group II Play-Offs. One team each from Americas Group I and Asia/Oceania Zone Group I also move up.

Current Competition Structure

This is how the competition has been set up since 2016.

How Matches are Played

In the World Group and World Group II, and their Play-offs, each match-up (called a "tie") has five individual matches. These are played over two days. On the first day, there are two singles matches. On the second day, the reverse singles matches happen. The last match is a doubles match.

In the Zonal Groups (I, II, and III), ties are shorter. They have three matches: two singles and one doubles.

The first-round ties in the World Group and World Group II are played as knockout matches. This means the loser is out. They happen over a weekend early in the year.

The World Group Semi-finals and Final are also knockout matches. They take place over a weekend in July (Semi-finals) and September (Final).

Play-off ties for World Group and World Group II are also knockout matches. They happen in July.

The location for these knockout ties is chosen by drawing lots. Or it might automatically go to one of the competing nations.

Groups I, II, and III are played in a round-robin style. All matches for an event happen at one place over one week. These events are held in the first half of the year. This allows teams to move up to the World Group II Play-off ties later in the year. The BJK Cup Committee decides the dates and locations.

Records and Winners

Countries That Have Won the Cup

Country	Years won	Runners-up
United States	1963, 1966, 1967, 1969, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1986, 1989, 1990, 1996, 1999, 2000, 2017 (18)	1964, 1965, 1974, 1985, 1987, 1991, 1994, 1995, 2003, 2009, 2010, 2018 (12)
Czechoslovakia  Czech Republic	1975, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1988, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018 (11)	1986 (1)
Australia	1964, 1965, 1968, 1970, 1971, 1973, 1974 (7)	1963, 1969, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1984, 1993, 2019, 2022 (12)
Soviet Union  Russia RTF	2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2020–21 (5)	1988, 1990, 1999, 2001, 2011, 2013, 2015 (7)
Spain	1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1998 (5)	1989, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2002, 2008 (6)
Italy	2006, 2009, 2010, 2013 (4)	2007, 2023 (2)
France	1997, 2003, 2019 (3)	2004, 2005, 2016 (3)
West Germany  Germany	1987, 1992 (2)	1966, 1970, 1982, 1983, 2014 (5)
Switzerland	2022 (1)	1998, 2020–21 (2)
South Africa	1972 (1)	1973 (1)
Belgium	2001 (1)	2006 (1)
Slovakia	2002 (1)	–
Canada	2023 (1)	–
Great Britain	–	1967, 1971, 1972, 1981 (4)
Netherlands	–	1968, 1997 (2)
Serbia	–	2012 (1)
Belarus	–	2017 (1)

Individual Player Records

• Youngest player: Denise Panagopoulou from Greece. She was 12 years and 360 days old. (Players must now be 14 or older).
• Oldest player: Gill Butterfield from Bermuda. She was 52 years and 162 days old.
• Most matches played: Arantxa Sánchez Vicario from Spain played 100 matches.
• Most ties played: Anne Kremer from Luxembourg played 74 ties.
• Most matches won:
  • Total: 72 by Arantxa Sánchez Vicario, Spain.
  • Singles: 50 by Arantxa Sánchez Vicario, Spain.
  • Doubles: 38 by Larisa Savchenko-Neiland, from the Soviet Union/Latvia.
• Longest match: In 2016, Richèl Hogenkamp (Netherlands) beat Svetlana Kuznetsova (Russia) in 4 hours. The score was 7–6, 5–7, 10–8.
• Most successful captain: Petr Pála led the Czech Republic to 6 titles.

Heart Award

The Heart Award is a special yearly award from the ITF. It's given to players in the Billie Jean King Cup. This award celebrates players who have played well for their country. It also honors those who show great courage on the court. And it's for players who are very dedicated to their team. The award started in 2009.

Year	Winner
2009	Melanie Oudin	N/A
	World Group SF	WG / WG II play-offs	WG / WG II R1	Americas ZG I	Asia/Oceania ZG I	Europe/Africa ZG I
2010	Francesca Schiavone	Yanina Wickmayer	Jelena Janković	Maria Fernanda Alves	Kimiko Date-Krumm	Katarina Srebotnik
2011	Petra Kvitová	Andrea Petkovic	Bojana Jovanovski	Bianca Botto	Ayumi Morita	Victoria Azarenka
2012	Jelena Janković		Daniela Hantuchová	Catalina Castaño	Li Na	Sofia Arvidsson
2013	Sara Errani		Daniela Hantuchová	Paula Cristina Gonçalves	Galina Voskoboeva	Agnieszka Radwańska
2014	Andrea Petkovic		Agnieszka Radwańska	Teliana Pereira	Sabina Sharipova	Simona Halep
2015	Lucie Šafářová	Flavia Pennetta	Irina-Camelia Begu	Verónica Cepede Royg	Tamarine Tanasugarn	Çağla Büyükakçay
2016	Caroline Garcia	Hsu Ching-Wen	Aliaksandra Sasnovich	Nadia Podoroska	Hsieh Su-wei	Kateryna Bondarenko
2017	Aliaksandra Sasnovich	Julia Görges	Aryna Sabalenka	Bianca Andreescu	Galina Voskoboeva	Heather Watson
2018	Petra Kvitová	Eugenie Bouchard	Kristina Mladenovic	Montserrat González	Yulia Putintseva	Olga Danilović
2019	Ashleigh Barty	Katie Boulter	Simona Halep	Carolina Meligeni Alves	Zarina Diyas	Johanna Konta
	Finals	Qualifiers	Play-offs	Americas Group I	Asia/Oceania Group I	Europe/Africa Group I
2020–21	Belinda Bencic	Anastasija Sevastova	Leylah Fernandez	Fernanda Contreras Gómez	Sania Mirza	Anett Kontaveit
2022	Storm Sanders	Iga Świątek	Beatriz Haddad Maia	Beatriz Haddad Maia	Ankita Raina	Kaja Juvan
2023	Leylah Fernandez	Leylah Fernandez	Anhelina Kalinina	Julia Riera	Back Da-yeon	Rebecca Peterson

Current Team Rankings

For more information, see ITF rankings

ITF Billie Jean King Cup Nations Ranking, as of 10 December  2023 (2023 -12-10)[update]
#	Nation	Points	Move†
1	Canada	1,117.07	5
2	Australia	1,093.32
3	Switzerland	1,072.15	2
4	Czech Republic	1020.32	1
5	Italy	985.00	3
6	France	980.84	2
7	Spain	974.04	4
8	United States	881.94	1
9	Kazakhstan	864.57	2
10	Germany	804.52
11	Slovakia	757.07
12	Romania	702.27	5
13	Belgium	682.50
14	Slovenia	672.26	4
15	Great Britain	671.71	1
16	Brazil	670.78	1
17	Poland	657.56	5
18	Ukraine	653.93	2
19	Mexico	637.85	1
20	Japan	608.85	1

^†Change since previous ranking update

See Also

• Junior Davis Cup and Junior Billie Jean King Cup
• International Tennis Federation
• Davis Cup
• Hopman Cup
• Wightman Cup
• United Cup