Pegula books USA's place in 2023 BJK Cup Finals

15/04/2023 00:00

World No. 3 Jessica Pegula kept her cool on a hot day in southern Florida to defeat Austria’s Julia Grabher 6-1 6-3 and clinch USA’s place in the Billie Jean King Cup by Gainbridge Finals.

By Ed Pearson
Pegula books USA's place in 2023 BJK Cup Finals

World No. 3 Jessica Pegula kept her cool on a hot day in southern Florida to defeat Austria’s Julia Grabher 6-1 6-3 and clinch USA’s place in the Billie Jean King Cup by Gainbridge Finals.

On paper the outcome of this tie was unlikely to go the way of the visiting Austrians, who were up against an impressive American team led by Pegula and world No. 6 Coco Gauff. In fact, four of USA’s five-woman line-up were ranked higher than Austrian No. 1 Grabher such is the strength in depth from which Kathy Rinaldi has to pick her team.

Marion Maruska, the Austrian captain who was part of the team that shocked USA 21 years ago, knows only too well that upsets can happen – especially when you add in the pressure of playing for your country – but this American team will be one to watch when the World Cup of Tennis Finals roll around in November.

Both Pegula and Gauff are ranked Top 10 in singles and doubles and with a further six singles players and seven doubles players in the Top 50, it’s hard to think that the US won’t be among the contenders for the title in 2023.

In Delray Beach for the Qualifier against Austria, Rinaldi only needed two of her players to score the points required to secure a spot in the showpiece event later this year. With Gauff setting the tone with an emphatic victory over Grabher in the opening match yesterday evening, Pegula notched back-to-back wins against Sinja Kraus on Friday night before showing why she is one of the best players in the world right now with a controlled performance against Grabher on a blisteringly hot day in Florida on Saturday afternoon.

The American needed just 55 minutes to complete the win, and in so doing secured an unsurpassable 3-0 scoreline for the host nation.

“I really wanted to clinch today,” Pegula admitted having never secured the winning point in singles. “It’s so much more exiting when you get to guarantee your team through.”

The focus of the crowd this week has been on hometown player Coco Gauff, but Pegula has lived in Boca (just a few miles away) since she was a young girl.

“It’s nice to play at home,” she added. “We just played in Miami, and that felt like home too, so it’s been a fun few weeks.”

USA join Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Kazakhstan and Spain as qualifiers to this year’s Finals with the result from Canada v Belgium and Slovenia v Romania still not known at the time of writing.

The nine qualifiers will be joined by 2022 champions Switzerland, 2022 runners-up Australia and a wild card nation that has yet to be announced.