Romania's Ana Bogdan serves during the Billie Jean King Cup women's tennis tournament Saturday, April 13, 2024 at Racquet Park at Omni Amelia Island in Fernandina Beach, Fla. Romania's Ana Bogdan defeated Ukraine's Elina Svitolina 6-4, 4-6, 6-3. Credit: © Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union / USA TODAY NETWORK
It’s hard to imagine that there will ever be another Billie Jean King, in terms of one person’s impact on the women’s sports space. Billie Jean King has changed ice hockey and the Olympics, lacrosse and collegiate sports. She’s created jobs where there weren’t any, and changed the way we research women and girls’ participation in sports through every age range and at every level. But she’ll always have an extra special place in the sport that stole her heart.
The Billie Jean King Cup by Gainbridge® is the largest women's team tennis tournament, and takes place in tandem with the Davis Cup each year. With a highly competitive qualifying structure and teams from all over the globe fighting for the coveted title, it is often known as the Women's World Cup of tennis. Its team forward structure challenges athletes who traditionally play on their own, sometimes crowning unlikely champions and making each edition thrilling and unexpected.
With a packed WTA schedule, why do so many star players make time for this tournament?
The Partners
The Cup was initially inaugurated as the Federation Cup, as a celebration of the International Tennis Federation’s 50th anniversary in 1963. It was rebranded as the Fed Cup in 1995, but the most important changes came in the 2020s. In 2020 the cup was renamed after Billie Jean King to honor not only her groundbreaking contributions to equality in women’s sports, but her 10 Cup championships, as both a player and a coach. Shortly after the rebrand, an equally important change took place: thanks to Gainbridge, the competition would now have a payout equivalent to the Davis Cup, the men’s tournament: a cool $9.6 million dollars USD in prize money awaits the Finalists this year.
Source: Billie Jean King Cup
Gainbridge has been a huge player in the women’s sports space, making historic investments that have changed the prestige and draw of events like the BJK Cup.
“I’m a true believer that these are partners rather than sponsors,” says Senior Partnerships Manager for the BJK Cup Solene Agostini-Guitton. “We work together on the message to make sure we’re aligned, and we join forces with our partners to promote women’s sports globally. It’s very important to us to find partners like Gainbridge where we feel that strong alignment.”
Now in its third year of supporting the Cup, Gainbridge is making sure that not only are the stars rewarded, but the next generation of women and girls in sport are supported. The Billie Jean King Cup is part of Parity Week by Gainbridge®, which levels the playing field by giving grants to 21 organizations who are moving the needle in women’s sports.To learn more about each of these organizations and Parity week, visit Parity's website.
The Format
Four countries have earned automatic bids into this year’s tournament: Canada as defending champions and Italy as defending runners up, Spain as the host country and Czechia as the wild card. They will be joined by Australia, Germany, Great Britain, Japan, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and the USA, who all had to earn their way into the tournament via qualifiers held in April of this year. Losing teams from the qualifiers will compete in the BJK Cup playoffs during the Cup week, fighting for the chance to compete in the 2025 edition of the Cup.
While the qualifiers and playoffs are a best-of-five format (four singles matches followed by doubles), the Finals features a more condensed best-of-three format (two singles followed by doubles). The Finals take place over four rounds, with Canada, Italy and Czechia already advanced to the second, quarter final, round.
The Players
Each team consists of five athletes, this year’s roster featuring the tennis royalty we have grown to know and love. World number 2 sensation Iga Świątek will lead team Poland, while number 4 Jasmine Paolini will hope to help Italy go the distance. What stood between Paolini and the coveted title last year? Young superstar Leylah Fernandez. Fernandez dazzled in the tournament, leading Canada to their first ever international team tournament win. Fernandez is back, fresh off her second Olympic Games at just 22 years old, and will be a force to be reckoned with. Fans from the United States can cheer on their squad captained by the veteran 3-time grand slam winner Lindsay Davenport. Davenport will lead a team full of fresh faces looking to take its first BJK Cup win since 2017.
Source: Billie Jean King Cup
The 2024 BJK Cup
This year’s edition of the Billie Jean King Cup by Gainbridge® will take place November 13 through 20th in Malaga, Spain. Looking for a getaway with unmatched athleticism and atmosphere?
“People should absolutely come!” Solene encourages. “For the second year in a row the Billie Jean King Cup is in Spain, where tennis is a very popular sport. This year our tournament has some overlap with the Davis Cup (which takes place next door from November 18-24), so tennis fans can come to the same region and enjoy two events, not just one. And with the recent catastrophic flooding in parts of Spain, this is a practical way to support the Spanish economy.”
For those unable to make the trip, the BJK Cup can be watched on the Tennis Channel (US), Movistar (Spain), BBC (UK), BeInSport (France) and many more channels across 50 countries. For more information including full rosters, ticket purchases, the Finals Schedule and all the latest news on the Cup, please visit the Billie Jean King Cup website.
About Parity, a Group 1001 Company
Minority-founded in 2020, Parity's mission is to close the gender income and opportunity gap in professional sports. By developing high-impact collaborations between brands, professional women athletes and their fans, Parity has proudly put more than $3.5 million in the pockets of women athletes, attracting dozens of brands to the movement in the process. The platform offers connections to more than 1000 women athletes from 80+ sports, including well over 200 Olympians and Paralympians. For more information on how to tap into the rapidly rising influence and popularity of women athletes, visit https://paritynow.co or follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Threads.
