Collins, Pegula, Townsend Lead USA for King Cup Finals

By Tennis Now | @Tennis_Now | Monday, September 16, 2024
Photo credit: Clive Brunskill/Getty for ITF

US Open finalist Jessica Pegula and Miami Open champion Danielle Collins will head the United States’ quest to reclaim the Billie Jean King Cup.

Captain Lindsay Davenport selected Collins, Pegula, US Open mixed doubles finalist Taylor Townsend, Caroline Dolehide and Peyton Stearns to the U.S. squad that will ed November 13-20 at the Palacio de Deportes Jose Maria Martin Carpena Arena in Malaga, Spain.

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World No. 3 Pegula and the 10th-ranked Collins, playing her final pro season, give the United States two Top 10 champions. Coco Gauff, the 2023 US Open champion, and US Open semifinalist Emma Navarro, who both played on the U.S. Olympic team in Paris, are not on the squad for the Billie Jean King Cup Finals.

Billie Jean King Cup is the World Cup of Women’s Tennis, and the Finals – a 12-nation, knockout-style bracket – will crown this year’s champion.

The U.S. will play Slovakia in the first round on November 14, with the winner advancing to play Australia in the quarterfinals.

Each tie will be a best-of-three competition with two singles matches and one doubles match. The full field, schedule and ticketing information is available at billiejeankingcup.com.

This year will see both the U.S. Billie Jean King Cup and Davis Cup teams competing alongside one another, with both Finals scheduled to be played in Malaga at the same venue in consecutive weeks. The Davis Cup Final 8 will be played at the Carpena Arena from November 19-24.

The United States is the all-time leader with 18 Billie Jean King Cup titles and will hope to add to that this year by bringing a team with two Top-10 singles players and two Top-15 doubles players.

Pegula, 30, is now the top-ranked American woman at No. 3 after her run to the US Open singles final. She’s 5-1 in singles and 1-1 in doubles in Billie Jean King Cup competition and has clinched Qualifying victory for the U.S. each of the last three years.

Collins, 30, is ranked No. 10 in singles and has gone 39-15 with two WTA titles in 2024 after announcing she’d retire at the end of the year. She’s 7-1 all-time in Billie Jean King Cup singles, including a 2-0 record in last year’s Finals, and has competed in the Finals in each of the last three years.

Dolehide, 26, is ranked No. 45 in singles and No. 12 in doubles. She won her second career WTA 1000 doubles title this summer in Toronto and won in doubles with Townsend in the U.S. team’s qualifying win over Belgium in April.

Townsend, 28, is a career-high Top-5 doubles player currently ranked No. 8 in doubles and No. 47 in singles. She’s won three tour-level doubles titles this year, including her first Grand Slam at Wimbledon, and reached the mixed doubles final at the US Open as a wild card team with the retiring Donald Young. She’s 4-1 all-time in Billie Jean King Cup doubles competition.

Stearns, 22, is ranked No. 48 in singles. She had her Billie Jean King Cup debut nomination for last year’s Finals and won her first WTA singles title this past May. She helped lead the University of Texas to consecutive NCAA team championships in 2021-22 and won the NCAA women’s singles title in 2022 as a sophomore before turning pro.