Last Updated: October 19, 2023, 03:00 IST
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Billie Jean King wants the teams with a say in the tennis schedule to keep away from potential conflicts equivalent to the shut timing and far distance between the WTA Finals and Billie Kean King Cup Finals, which led Iga Swiatek, Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula to select to compete in the former and skip the latter.
Billie Jean King wants the teams with a say in the tennis schedule to keep away from potential conflicts equivalent to the shut timing and far distance between the WTA Finals and Billie Kean King Cup Finals, which led Iga Swiatek, Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula to select to compete in the former and skip the latter.
On a convention name Wednesday to promote the competitors named in her honor — its finals might be Nov. 7-12 in Seville, Spain — King stated she isn’t certain how a lot dialogue there’s been between the International Tennis Federation, which oversees the BJK Cup, and the WTA, whose championships are Oct. 29 to Nov. 5 in Cancun, Mexico.
“We all need to get together and figure out a better calendar for the players and everybody knowing what’s going to happen, because you can’t start making these decisions, like on the (WTA) Finals, in October or … September,” King stated. “They have to know ahead of time. It’s only fair.”
Added Conchita Martinez, match director for the BJK Cup Finals and, like King, somebody who has a participant received the workforce competitors that used to be often known as the Fed Cup: “We need to work together for better solutions.”
The WTA introduced in June when its season-ending tour occasion can be performed, nevertheless it didn’t make the website recognized till Sept. 7. The alternative to maintain the 2022 WTA Finals in Fort Worth, Texas, additionally was not introduced till September of final 12 months. That prompted Swiatek to level out that the location and the timing — competitors in Fort Worth ended a day earlier than the begin of the Billie Jean King Cup Finals in Glasgow, Scotland — have been problematic.
“This situation is not safe for our health and could cause injury,” Swiatek stated final 12 months.
She opted to take part in the WTA Finals and not play for Poland at the BJK Cup Finals in 2022 — and made the similar selections this time.
Gauff, the 19-year-old American who received the U.S. Open final month for her first Grand Slam title, and Pegula additionally might be in Mexico and not in Spain.
It means three of the high 4 ladies in the WTA rankings will miss the BJK Cup Finals: No. 2 Swiatek, No. 3 Gauff and No. 4 Pegula.
“We need to focus on the positive here,” Martinez stated. “I mean, we might not have three names here. But we have amazing players playing.”
Among the Grand Slam singles champions anticipated to take part in Seville are Marketa Vondrousova and Barbora Krejcikova for the Czech Republic, Sloane Stephens for the United States and Elena Rybakina for Kazakhstan.
King stated she would really like to see the BJK Cup and its equal for males, the Davis Cup, be mixed.
“You know how I am about having the men and women work together,” she stated.
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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
(This story has not been edited by News18 employees and is printed from a syndicated information company feed – Associated Press)
