The 2024 Billie Jean King Cup Finals will kick off between all qualified nations on the 12th of November and run till the 17th of November in Seville, Spain. The qualifying round matches, however, will take place on 12-13 April 2024 across the world. The tournament started as the ‘Federation Cup’ in 1963, which was later renamed to honor Billie Jean King, the US tennis legend, who is a 12-time Grand Slam winner and a pioneer of ‘equal pay advocation’ between men and women in tennis.
The United States have been the most successful team of all time at the Billie Jean King Cup, winning an impressive 18 titles. And it is no surprise that King herself is arguably the greatest captain the American team has ever had. Here is a list of American legends who played under Billie Jean King’s captaincy in the past –
Serena Williams
At the 1999 Federation Cup, 17-year-old Serena Williams played under Billie Jean King’s captaincy, making her debut in that edition. King herself picked Serena Williams and her sister Venus Williams in the 10-player team. Venus had been named in 1995 and 1998 before, and Serena in 1998, where she won the mixed doubles in London and New York.
Although the sisters didn’t play the match against Croatia, they were there in the finals where the USA beat Russia 4-1 to win the Cup.
Lindsay Davenport
Lindsay Davenport will be captaining the USA team in this year’s Billie Jean King Cup competition. But the 47-year-old has also played under Billie Jean King’s captaincy in the tournament. She didn’t just play, but helped USA win the title thrice under King’s leadership – in 1996, 1999, and 2000.
Davenport has won more matches than anybody else, except Chris Evert, for the United States in this event. They beat Spain 5-0, Russia 4-1, and Spain 5-0 in 1996, 1999, and 2000 respectively.
Monica Seles
At the 1996 Billie Jean King Cup, when USA beat Spain 5-0 in the final to win the title, Monica Seles too was part of the team. She was there with Lindsay Davenport in that tournament and made a big difference in USA’s win. Although born in Yugoslavia, Seles played the 1996 Cup for the USA and beat Arantxa Sanchez Vicario 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 to hand the USA a comfortable 5-0 win over Spain.
Billie Jean King was so proud of Monica Seles that she likened her to Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova. Seles was also instrumental in US’s title victory in 1999.
Jennifer Capriati
Although things didn’t end well between Billie Jean King and Jennifer Capriati under the former’s captaincy, the latter was once part of the King-led US team to victory. Capriati was part of the US team that won the title in 1990 when they beat the erstwhile Soviet Union 2-1 in Atlanta. She was also part of the 1996 team when the US won 5-0 against Spain in the final.
In the match against Austria, Capriati lost both her matches, but the US still won that round. In 2002, Billie Jean King took her out of the US team from the Fed Cup, citing the team’s importance over her as the reason for doing so.
Mary Joe Fernandez
At the 1996 Fed Cup, when Capriati lost both her matches in the USA’s clash against Austria, it was Mary Joe Fernandez who saved the Americans. She won both her rounds and also the doubles match with Capriati. USA went on to win that year’s title. Today, Fernandez is a reputed broadcaster for ESPN in the United States and the spouse of Tony Godsick, who is Roger Federer’s business partner.
