From Federation Cup to Billie Jean King Cup

16/09/2020 16:00

The Billie Jean King Cup by BNP Paribas has evolved and expanded to showcase women’s tennis at its best over more than half a century

From Federation Cup to Billie Jean King Cup

This week, the Fed Cup becomes the Billie Jean King Cup by BNP Paribas and embarks on a bold new future. We look back over the history of a competition that has always evolved and expanded to showcase women’s tennis at its best over more than half a century

The idea for an international women’s team competition had been around for around 40 years prior to first edition of Fed Cup in 1963, with Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman, a four-time US Open singles champion, proposing an idea for a team event as early as 1919. Her suggestions were rejected, and instead she founded the Wightman Cup, an annual challenge match between USA and Great Britain which ran from 1923 to 1989. 

But Wightman’s ideas for a larger-scale competition were not forgotten altogether. In the early 1960s, Mary Hardwick Hare, a former British player, garnered further support for a world cup-style event in women’s tennis and presented the ITF with a dossier illustrating the support that such a competition would have. 

Convinced by Hardwick Hare, the ITF launched the Federation Cup in 1963, marking the organisation’s 50th anniversary at the same time. 

The first Federation Cup was held over one week at Queen’s Club in London, with 16 nations contesting a knock-out style event. And, with Davis Cup often a battle for supremacy between USA and Australia at that time, the inaugural Federation Cup proved no different. The American team of Billie-Jean Moffitt (later King), Darlene Hard and Carole Caldwell overcame Australians Margaret Smith (later Court) and Lesley Turner to become the first winners engraved on the Cup. 

Australia would bounce back to win the next two titles (the first in Philadelphia, the next at home in Melbourne), but USA would claim more success as the competition moved to Turin in 1966 and then to Berlin in 1967 – with Billie Jean king again at the helm for the Americans. 

In fact, USA would win 11 of the first 20 editions of the event (and, with 18 titles in total, remain the most successful nation in the competition’s history), with Australia taking seven titles, and one win apiece for South Africa, in 1972, and Czechoslovakia, in 1975. 

The competition continued to grow year-on-year – from 16 nations at the first Federation Cup in 1963 to more than 30 nations each year throughout the 1970s. 

More growth was to follow in the 1980s, and with it came a spell of Czech dominance that saw the Americans supplanted as the team to beat. Czechoslovakia won the competition four times between 1983 and 1988, while a Steffi Graf-inspired West Germany became the fifth different nation to win the title in 1987. 

By the end of the 1980s, the host nation would often have to build new facilities to house the number of teams competing in the week-long event. The Cup was also attracting major sponsors, such as Colgate Group and NEC, which allowed for further expansion and rewards for the participants. 

With more than 50 nations entering in 1991, the ITF introduced regional qualifying events the following year. And in 1995, the biggest change in format was introduced, with nations competing in home-and-away ties as the men’s teams did in Davis Cup. This was also the year of the competition’s first name change, the snappier ‘Fed Cup’ becoming the official moniker of the tournament. 

On court, the 1990s were the decade of the great Spanish duo of Arantxa Sanchez Vicario and Conchita Martinez, with Spain winning a remarkable five titles during the decade. France would win a first Fed Cup crown in 1997, and there were victories for Belgium (2001) and Slovakia (2002) in the years that followed. 

Aside from a five-year experiment with a ‘Final Four’ format in the early 2000s, Fed Cup finals were held on a home-and-away basis between 1995 and 2019, allowing some of the sport’s greatest names to compete for titles on home soil. Russia won the first of its four Fed Cup titles in Moscow in 2004, while Italy scored a memorable away victory over Belgium away in Charleroi in 2006, for the first of their four triumphs in the competition. 

The last decade has belonged again to the Czechs, who have won six titles since 2011, with Petra Kvitova now among the most successful Fed Cup players of all time.  

In 2019, the ITF announced the creation of the Fed Cup Finals. with the world’s 12 best teams set to battle for the title over one week and compete for a prize fund totalling $18 million, a figure equivalent to that on offer in the Davis Cup. And while that event will showcase the world’s best players, the competition is important all the way down the tennis ecosystem, with a place on your nation’s Fed Cup team a huge honour for all players. Around 100 nations now compete in Fed Cup every year, with 116 teams entered in 2020. 

As the most successful individual in Fed Cup history and as a trailblazer for equality on- and off-court, Billie Jean King was announced as the competition’s first global ambassador last year. And now, the competition – which retains the drama of home and away ties in the qualifying rounds and a one-week showdown for the title – will bear her name, ensuring a lasting legacy for both King herself and the values she espouses. 

It is a fitting tribute to a woman who has been there since it all started back in 1963. The competition was paused this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, with the 12 teams which qualified for the Fed Cup Finals in 2020 now to compete in the newly renamed Billie Jean King Cup Finals in 2021.   

Bring it on. 

Key dates 

1963
ITF launches the Federation Cup to celebrate its 50th anniversary. An American team including Billie Jean King defeats Australia in the final to become the first champions. Australia gain revenge the following year to become the second nation to lift the trophy 

1972
After a decade in which the rivalry between USA and Australia defined the competition, South Africa become the third different nation to win the title. 

1983
Having won a first title eight years earlier, Czechoslovakia embark on a period of dominance that sees them win four titles in six years. 

1991
The Spanish dream team of Arantxa Sanchez Vicario and Conchita Martinez combine to win the first of Spain’s five Fed Cup titles in the 1990s.  

1992
With more than 50 nations now entering the competition, regional qualifying events are introduced. 

1995
The competition is officially renamed Fed Cup, while a new format of home-and-away ties at World Group level is introduced. 

2000
Experiments with the format between 2000 and 2004 see a ‘Final Four’ played in four of five seasons in the early 2000s, before reverting to the home-and-away format in 2005. 

2004
In the same year that three Russian women win Grand Slam singles titles, Russia win the Fed Cup for the first time, and go on to win four titles in five seasons between 2004 and 2008. 

2011
The Czechs begin their second spell of Fed Cup dominance, with a first title since the 1980s. Petr Pala’s team, spearheaded by Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, win the title in six of the nine seasons between 2011 and 2019. 

2019
The next great evolution of the competition comes with the ITF announcing the creation of a 12-team Fed Cup Finals event, due to be held for the first time in Budapest the following year. Billie Jean King also becomes the first Fed Cup Global Ambassador. 

April 2020
The new Fed Cup Finals are postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The 12 teams that qualified will instead participate in the Finals in Budapest in 2021. 

September 2020
The competition is renamed the Billie Jean King Cup by BNP Paribas.