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Pegula, Gauff, Collins, Keys and Townsend to represent U.S. at Billie Jean King Cup Finals

Victoria Chiesa | October 10, 2022


The United States' four highest-ranking singles players and a recent US Open women's doubles finalist will make up its Billie Jean King Cup team at this November's Billie Jean King Cup by Gainbridge Finals in Glasgow, Scotland. U.S. captain Kathy Rinaldi announced on Monday that Jessica Pegula, Coco Gauff, Danielle Collins, Madison Keys and Taylor Townsend will lead an American squad that's in pursuit of a record-extending 18th Billie Jean King Cup title next month.

Photo by Mike Lawrence/USTA.

The Americans' depth is their strength, and in pursuit of their first title in the competition in five years, Rinaldi's fielded a team of four Top 20-singles and two Top 10-doubles players. Townsend has been named to the team for the first time since 2015, with the honor coming a month after she reached the US Open women's doubles final with fellow American Caty McNally in just her third Grand Slam tournament since she gave birth to her son last year. Roland Garros singles finalist Gauff, too, is somewhat of a newcomer to the competition: She was named to the squad in 2020 when the U.S. hosted Latvia in Everett, Wash., but did not compete.

 

Pegula helped the U.S. reach this stage of the competition by participating in April's qualifying round, where she chipped in two points to the Americans' 3-2 victory over Ukraine in Asheville, N.C. She's the top-ranked U.S. singles player at world No. 6, and one of two in the Top 10 alongside Gauff.

Keys, currently ranked No. 18, will be competing in her seventh Billie Jean King Cup tie, and first since 2019, while Collins, the 2022 Australian Open finalist currently ranked No. 19, will contest her fourth. After making her debut in the competiton three years ago, Collins was also part of the U.S.'s Finals squad 12 months ago—and is the only one of Rinaldi's returners to have featured at that stage before.

 

The Billie Jean King Cup, formerly called Fed Cup, is the largest annual team competition in women's sport, iand a six-day Finals will crown this year’s champion. Twelve nations drawn into four groups will first compete in a round-robin format, with the group winners advancing to the knockout-style semifinals.

 

The U.S. was drawn into Group D and will play Poland (Wednesday, Nov. 9, 4 p.m. local time) and the Czech Republic (Friday, Nov. 11, 4:30 p.m. local time) with hopes of advancing to the semifinals and beyond. Since the competition began in 1963, the U.S. is 4-0 all-time against Poland, and 10-3 against the Czech Republic and, formerly, Czechoslovakia. The Czechs are the second-winningest team in Billie Jean King Cup history with 11 titles, including six as an independent nation. The U.S. lost its last meeting with the Czechs in the 2018 Finals, 3-0.  

 

Each tie will be a best-of-three competition with two singles matches and one doubles match played on an indoor hard court inside Glasgow's Emirates Arena. The full field, schedule and ticketing information is available at billiejeankingcup.com.

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