USA and Canada are firmly in the BJK Cup finals

London, England) – A strong American team had no trouble asserting their preference on Delray Beach’s artificial surface, advancing to the finals of the Billie Jean King Cup, which will bring together 12 nations in November to battle for the 2023 title.

After a 2-0 start on Friday, the American team got the job done with Jessica Pegula easily beating Julia Graber 6/1, 6/3. Coco Goff dropped out of the singles and entered the doubles with Katie McNally and finished the party 6/1 and 6/4 over Melanie Klaffner and Sinja Krause.

Even playing at home on an indoor artificial court in Vancouver, Canada was too tough against Belgium and was only guaranteed in the singles. Leila Fernandez started a fierce comeback against Ysaline Bonaventure 4/6, 7/5 and 6/2, but Creed Minnen broke the deadlock with a 6/2, 3/6 and 6/3 win over Kathryn Sebo to establish a new tie. A very convincing performance by Gabriela Dabrowski marked the decisive point. She and Fernandez beat Minnen and Kirsten Flipkens 6/1, 6/2.

Others needed in the last game were the Italians. Slovakia trailed on Friday, but in two singles matches this Saturday, Bratislava’s indoor artificiality responded. Anna Schmidlova defeated Jasmine Paulini 6/1, 4/6, 6/4, and Viktoria Hrunzakova beat Elisabetta Gociaretto 6/3, 7/6 (7-2). Finally, Cocciaretto combined with Martina Trevisan for a hard-fought 6/4, 4/6 and 7/5 win over Viktoria Hrunchakova and Teresa Mihalikova.

The last of the nine qualifying spots will only be known this Sunday. Slovenia and Romania played to a 2-2 draw on clay in Gopher as Tamara Zidanček and Caja Juvan won their singles doubles on Saturday. Zidanzek beat Ana Bogdan 3/6, 7/6 (7-4) and 7/5, and Juan over Jacqueline Christian 6/2, 6/4. The decisive pair were tied 3-3 when rain interrupted Juan/Zidanček’s match against Irina Bara and Monica Niculescu.

Germany, Kazakhstan, France and Spain are the other five countries guaranteed a place in the finals by Qualifiers. As defending champion and runner-up, Switzerland and Australia are confirmed. ITF will announce the venue and 12th participant soon.