From Tennis Now | @Tennis_Now | Monday, September 16, 2024
Photo: Clive Brunskill/Getty for ITF
US Open finalist Jessica Pegula and Miami Open champion Danielle Collins will spearhead the United States’ effort to reclaim the Billie Jean King Cup.
Captain Lindsay Davenport selected Collins, US Open mixed doubles finalist Pegula Taylor Townsend, Caroline Dolehide AND Peyton Stearns for the US team that will take place November 13-20 at the Palacio de Deportes Jose Maria Martin Carpena Arena in Malaga, Spain.
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World No. 3 Pegula and No. 10 Collins, playing her final professional season, give the United States two Top 10 champions. Coco Gauff, 2023 US Open champion and US Open semi-finalist Emma Navarrowho both played on the US Olympic team in Paris, are not on the team for the Billie Jean King Cup finals.
The Billie Jean King Cup is the Women’s Tennis World Cup, and the Finals – a 12-seed, knockout-style group – will crown this year’s champion.
The USA will play Slovakia in the first round on November 14, with the winner playing Australia in the quarterfinals.
Each tie will be a best-of-three competition with two singles matches and one doubles match. Full field, schedule and ticket information is available at billiejeankingcup.com.
This year will see the US Billie Jean King Cup and Davis Cup teams compete alongside each other, with both finals scheduled to be played in Malaga at the same venue on consecutive weeks. The Davis Cup Final 8 will be played at Carpena Arena from November 19-24.
The United States is the all-time leader with 18 Billie Jean King Cup titles and will hope to add to that this year by fielding a team with two Top-10 players and two Top-15 doubles players.
Pegula, 30, is now the third-ranked American woman after her run to the US Open singles final. She is 5-1 in singles and 1-1 in doubles in Billie Jean King Cup competition and has qualified for the USA in each of the last three years.
Collins, 30, is ranked No. 10 in singles and has gone 39-15 with two WTA titles in 2024 after announcing she would retire at the end of the year. She is 7-1 all-time in Billie Jean King Cup singles, including a 2-0 record in last year’s finals, and has competed in the finals in each of the last three years.
Dolehide, 26, is ranked No. 45 in singles and No. 12 in doubles. She won the second WTA 1000 doubles title of her career this summer in Toronto and won the doubles with Townsend in the US team’s qualifying win over Belgium in April.
Townsend, 28, is a career Top-5 doubles player, currently ranked No. 8 in doubles and No. 47 in singles. She has won three tournament-level doubles titles this year, including her first Grand Slam at Wimbledon, and reached the US Open mixed doubles final as a wild card team with Donald Young in pension. She is 4-1 all-time in Billie Jean King Cup doubles.
Stearns, 22, is ranked No. 48 in singles. She had her Billie Jean King Cup debut nomination for last year’s finals and won her first WTA title last May. She helped lead the University of Texas to back-to-back NCAA team championships in 2021-22 and won the NCAA women’s title in 2022 as a sophomore before turning pro.
