Hear from Billie Jean King about the Billie Jean King Cup
By Joey Dillon
The IX: Tennis Tuesday with Joey Dillon, Nov. 26, 2024
Howdy, y’all, Happy Tennis Tuesday. It’s safe to say the official 2024 WTA season is complete following the end of the Billie Jean King Cup Finals. Delightfully, I got to speak to Billie Jean King herself about the tournament! I did give my predictions last month and in true Joey fashion, they sure didn’t happen that way! In my defense, a lot of the lineups changed but I still would have put decent money on debut captain Lindsay Davenport claiming the United States their first title since 2017.
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Unfortunately, that wasn’t meant to be as Slovakia stunned the Americans, Australia and Great Britain consecutively en route to the championship match. They faced an Italian squad that is no stranger to victory having won four titles since 2006. After a first round bye, they eeked out 2-1 wins over Japan and Poland. What was inspiring from both teams is that it truly was a team effort. For Slovakia, Rebecca Sramkova played above her insane fall form while the doubles team of Viktoria Hruncakova and Tereza Mihalikova clinched victories over USA and Great Britain. For Italy, Jasmine Paolini only dropped one match the entire weekend — a tough three-set loss to Iga Swiatek in the semifinals. She and Sara Errani teamed up to claim doubles rubbers when it mattered.
In the final, Italy was supreme, taking both singles rubbers without much drama. Lucia Bronzetti downed Hruncakova in straight sets before Paolini did the same with a quick sweep over Sramkova to do one better than last year’s runner-up finish.
It was an extra sweet victory for Italy and captain Tathiana Garbin, who had been battling cancer after last year’s Finals, calling the opportunity to even be in Malaga “a gift.”
I was fortunate enough to sit in on a quick roundtable with Billie Jean King, Ilana Kloss and tournament CEO Kerstin Lutz. I asked King about the rise of other female sports coverage and how in a way, tennis’ has stalled even though magazine publisher Gladys Heldman helped the Original 9 create the WTA.
“Back in our day, we would talk to anyone and everyone,” Billie Jean said. “We all knew the importance of the media and the telling of our story. Without the media, there was no way of our voice being heard. Now, agents and social media have changed the narrative. Players (and their agents) are able to tell their story on their own [which factors out the tour.]”
All three participants at the roundtable were complimentary of the tournament’s sponsorship, something that’s consistently diversifying at the professional level.
“We’re extremely fortunate to have partners like Gainbridge (Insurance), e.l.f. Beauty and Microsoft, which ensures the longevity of the Billie Jean King Cup,” Kloss said. Kloss also stressed how these partnerships strengthen the parity in the game — with the event able to match the prize money of its male counterpart, the Davis Cup.
I’ll also leave this little tidbit here to show that while coverage in the United States might be hidden behind a paywall or an illegal stream, that’s not the case globally:
On top of the Finals, there were also eight playoffs held around the world to determine the eight teams that would advance to the 2025 Billie Jean King Cup qualifiers:
Now, on to links but I would first like to wish everyone a safe and Happy Thanksgiving week. I am so thankful for our editor, Howard and the amazing team of writers and help we have here at The IX, as well as our amazing subscribers who help make this endeavor possible! (Editor’s note: same to you, Joey!)
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This Week in Women’s Tennis
Renata Zarazua and Nina Stojanovic captured clay court WTA 125 titles in Charleston, South Carolina and Colina, Chile, respectively. In doubles, the Charleston title was won by Nuria Brancaccio and Leyre Romero Gormaz, while Stojanovic and Mayar Sherif won in Colina.
Congratulations to Madison Keys, who married ATP player Bjorn Fratangelo with many players in attendance including Sloane Stephens, Jessica Pegula, Taylor Townsend and Laura Robson:
The WTA announced the nominees for their annual awards and Jon Wertheim ended the year with his own nominations.
Emma Raducanu returned to the courts following an early end to her Asian Swing, showcasing tennis at the BJK Cup Finals she intends to bring in 2025.
Caroline Garcia shared that she’s finished her hiatus and will be returning to the tour in January:
Alize Cornet coming out with this “why you say vamos” shirt AND tagging Sara Errani is the exact kind of mess I endorse. I need one immediately.
For the second time, former doubles World No. 1 Elena Vesnina announced her retirement from tennis after achieving her goal of playing in another Olympic Games:
We’ll delve into how it all unfolded so I won’t say any names, but the 2024-25 NCAA singles and doubles champions were crowned in Waco this weekend.
Universal Tennis continues to expand into the professional tennis sphere with their most recent announcement being additions to their Player Relations team.
Rolex will continue to be the Official Timekeeper and Timepiece of the tour and WTA Finals Riyadh.
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Tweet of the Week
Five at The IX: Billie Jean King Cup finals captains
Q. Congratulations, everybody. A question for the captain and for Jasmine. Can you talk about the moment of receiving the jackets from Billie Jean King and just what you make of this tradition? And if there were any shared words between you? I know you guys talked to her, if you can give us some of the highlights from that conversation.
CAPTAIN TATHIANA GARBIN: Actually, we change the jacket. I gave mine, and she gave me this one.
Yeah, it’s an honor to talk with Billie. She’s a legend. Every time she talk, she can tell you something very important. So I take every time words she say and trying to keep and learn something from her. She’s the one who change the game.
We have to be honor to have her here, because she change the way woman is treating. Not just in sport but in all the situation, because we have to learn how to fight, to have the opportunity, as a woman, to lead.
So it’s an honor to have her there (smiling).
JASMINE PAOLINI: I think the same. She have done so much for female tennis. So it’s a pleasure, a privilege to have her here, you know. It’s always nice and interesting to share some words with her.
I think it’s a really interesting people. She’s an icon. So it’s nice to play this competition that has her name now. Yeah, it’s perfect, I mean, to have a competition with her name for me.
Q. Matej, you stressed all week that Slovakia are a small nation. You have just beaten the third Grand Slam nation on the trot. This is a massive moment for Slovakia, isn’t it?
CAPTAIN MATEJ LIPTAK: Absolutely special moment for our country, for our players, for tennis in Slovakia. It’s so many years when we won it once only, and personally me, I was so close to be in the final in one match already.
But today it’s really real, and we are just one step from the maybe biggest victory of our team or team members. We will try to enjoy it tomorrow, and it’s unbelievable happy. The team is unbelievable happy, and we will try to enjoy also this moment now.
Q. There is positives to take, and it must give you confidence for the future. Just talk about that. How will you pick up the team maybe later tonight? What things will you say?
CAPTAIN ANNE KEOTHAVONG: I haven’t really thought about it yet, but I’m open to suggestions, girls (smiling).
Honestly, right now I am just, yeah, you know, it’s just a tough one to take right now. But, yeah, like I said, we’ve got a fantastic team, and we do need to find a way to pick ourselves up, maintain perspective, most of all.
You know, it’s just obviously quite a bit, well, it just hurts right now, because yeah, I don’t know how long it was when we walked off the court, but not that long.
Yes, I think I can take confidence from the fact that we’ve got incredible players in the UK. You know, we’ve shown with our best players what’s possible. We came close.
It wasn’t to be on this occasion, but that’s not to say, you know, next year, whether it’s next year or the year after, we’re going to have chances in this competition. I do really believe that.
Q. Dawid, what do you think of the team effort as a whole? It’s the best result of Poland in the Billie Jean King Cup. Do you think you can go any further in the upcoming years?
CAPTAIN DAWID CELT: I think so. We’re going to be fighting for more. Today results hurts, this is for sure, but this is sport. Sometimes you win; sometimes you lose.
We left on court everything what we had. That’s what we promised before the competition. I’m proud of my team and proud of my players.
Iga is a true leader. Thank you, Iga. You were amazing.
Yeah, I’m still full of emotions. Three exhausted days behind us. Yeah, I believe in the future we can go further. That’s for sure.
Q. Sam, one last one. Such an accomplished player in this tournament as a player. As captain, how do you summarize your first year as captain, the highs and lows? What have the girls been like to work with?
CAPTAIN SAMANTHA STOSUR: Oh, it’s a real pleasure to be in this position now. Obviously the tie in Brizzy when we got through, that was fantastic. Obviously that’s the highlight.
But yeah, it hasn’t been without its troublesome moments with obviously Storm being injured in that one before we got started. Now today.
So I’m hoping the next one is a bit more smooth sailing across the board, and we can just get down to playing tennis (smiling). But yeah, look, I’m looking forward to April already, because it’s just such a great week to have everyone together and, yeah, we always pull together and do the best we can.
Yeah, looking forward to the next one.
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