The International Tennis Federation (ITF), the sport's governing body, has today (June 7) named Glasgow in Scotland as the new host city for the finals of this year’s Billie Jean King Cup, the premier women’s national teams competition.
The finals will be played on indoor hard courts at the Emirates Arena on November 8 to 13.
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It was first reported in March that the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA), the governing body for the sport in the UK, was considering a bid to stage the tournament.
The LTA viewed it as a significant coup and is understood to be paying more than £10 million ($12.5 million) to host the finals.
The national body is keen to capitalize on the interest generated by Emma Raducanu, the 19-year-old British player who won last year’s US Open grand slam.
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This will be the fourth occasion in which Great Britain will host the finals of the annual international team competition.
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By GlobalDataLaunched in 1963 as the Federation Cup, the first event was held at London’s Queen’s Cub, while the tournament went on to be held in Eastbourne in 1977 and Nottingham in 1991.
The Billie Jean King Cup, which was known as the Fed Cup until 2020, is competed by around 100 nations, with 12 going on to the round-robin finals, hosted in a single location.
As host, Great Britain has automatically been awarded a place at the finals, having not competed at that stage since 1993.
Great Britain will join Australia, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Italy, Kazakhstan, Poland, Spain, Slovakia, Switzerland, and the USA.
Russia are the current champions of the tournament, having run out as winners last year but, under the sanctions on the country currently in place as a result of its invasion of Ukraine, they will not be able to defend their crown.
Glasgow was also recently selected as a host city for the group stage of the men’s Davis Cup.
Last year's Billie Jean King Cup Finals, the first edition of the revamped competition, was held in Prague in the Czech Republic after Budapest pulled out for safety reasons related to the Covid-19 pandemic.
David Haggerty, ITF president, said: “The LTA presented a very impressive bid as part of a competitive hosting process. They have successfully hosted Davis Cup ties in Glasgow, and we look forward to having the women’s World Cup of Tennis take place in front of passionate tennis fans from around the world.”
Scott Lloyd, chief executive of the LTA, added: “We have said that we were ambitious to bring more major events to Great Britain and raise the profile of tennis across the whole year, and I’m delighted that Glasgow will be hosting the Billie Jean King Cup Finals as well as the Davis Cup finals group stage this year.
“The first-ever finals were held in Great Britain in 1963, and it’s brilliant that the finals will be returning here for the first time since 1991. This gives us a great chance to open tennis to more people and create special memories that we hope will inspire the next generation of players.”
