U.S. to play Ukraine in  2022 Billie Jean King Cup Qualifiers

Next April, Team USA will host Ukraine with a spot in the 2022 Billie Jean King Cup Finals at stake.

After falling in the semifinals of this year's Billie Jean King Cup Finals to the team representing the Russian Federation on Friday, the U.S. was placed in Saturday's draw as one of nine seeded nations on the strength of the interim Billie Jean King Cup rankings, which took into account the results of this year's Finals. Also earning the choice of ground by random draw, the Americans will host one of the nine qualifying ties from April 15-16, 2022.

The full draw took place ahead of this year’s final between the Russian Tennis Federation and Switzerland, both of whom have qualified for the 2022 Finals automatically as a result. The 18 nations competing in next year's Qualifiers were drawn as follows:

• Czech Republic vs. Great Britain
• Australia vs. Slovakia
• France vs. Italy
• USA vs. Ukraine
• Belarus vs. Belgium
• Germany vs. Kazakhstan
• Canada vs. Latvia
• Spain vs. Netherlands
• Romania vs. Poland

The U.S. has played Ukraine just once in the history of the competition since Ukraine's independence from the Soviet Union. In the competition's old format, the U.S. won a 5-0 World Group Play-off tie on the road, on clay in Kharkiv back in 2012. Notably, that tie marked the Billie Jean King Cup debut of future Top 10 player Elina Svitolina, who was then just 17 years old. 

The winning nations in the 2022 Qualifiers will advance to the 2022 Finals, a field which will be rounded out by either the hosts of the 2022 competition (if not already qualified, when the host venue is announced) or the highest-ranked loser of a qualifying tie. The location for Team USA's qualifying tie will be announced in due course.

To learn more about the Billie Jean King Cup from the International Tennis Federation, visit www.BillieJeanKingCup.com.