Photos: Courtesy by Billie Jean King Cup and Tory Burch
The city of Malaga welcomed the Billie Jean King Cup for the first time at the José María Martín Carpena Sports Palace.
This is the premier international women’s team tennis competition that showcases the talent and passion of players from around the world. The first Fed Cup was held at the Queens Club in London in 1963, with a final between Australia and USA, where the American players won that first tournament.
It was in 2020 that the championship was renamed in honor of tennis legend Billie Jean King, who has since brought about major changes such as making the prize money for the players equivalent to the prize money awarded to the players in the Davis Cup finals.
To highlight the importance of the American tennis player, the winners of the tournament receive in addition to the trophy, a prize of 2.4 million dollars and a custom-designed blazer by Tory Burch in the distinctive Billie Blue jackets in homage to the iconic color Billie Jean King wore throughout her career.
The jackets symbolize the victory, dedication, hard work and passion they put in to get to the top and include an embroidered message on the inside from Billie Jean King herself that reads: “Congratulations on winning the 2024 Billie Jean King Cup! As a member of the first winning team at the Federation Cup in 1963, l dreamed of sharing this title with women like you. Tory Burch shares my passion for tennis and women’s empowerment. We designed the champion’s Billie Blue jacket to symbolize your incredible win and how far women have come in sports. Together, we can make equality a reality.”
From 14 to 20 November 2024, twelve teams from around the world took part: Spain as hosts, Canada as champions last year, Italy as runners-up in 2023, Australia, Germany, Slovakia, USA, Great Britain, Japan, Poland, the Czech Republic and Romania.
Spain faced Poland, where unfortunately the Spanish team failed to advance to the next round after being beaten by the Polish team with a score of 2-0. Although Paula Badosa played a very close match, she could not beat Iga Swiatek, current No. 2 in the world ranking.
Nevertheless, the tennis fans enjoyed an intense quarter-finals. The semi-finals were played between Monday and Tuesday where Italy beat Poland and to the surprise of many Slovakia eliminated Great Britain from the final. Finally, Italy and Slovakia faced each other on November 20th to win the precious trophy which went to the Italian players, leaving the Slovak players in second place with a 2-0 score.
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