Overview
The women's world team championship, founded as the Federation Cup in 1963 and renamed in 2020 for Billie Jean King.
The Billie Jean King Cup is the premier international team competition in women's tennis. Founded in 1963 as the Federation Cup, it was renamed the Fed Cup in 1995 and, in 2020, became the first major global team competition named after a woman.
The format now runs through home-and-away qualifiers to a finals week at a single venue, contested by twelve nations in groups and then a knockout. Each tie consists of two singles rubbers and a doubles.
Season Format
Recent Champions
Most recent first. Seasons still in progress are marked.
History
The Federation Cup was created in 1963 to mark the ITF's fiftieth anniversary, with sixteen nations playing a week-long event. The United States won the first edition and has won it a record eighteen times; Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic together have won it twelve.
The 2020 renaming honoured Billie Jean King, who played on the first United States team to win it in 1963 and who did more than anyone to establish women's professional tennis. The competition's structure has followed the Davis Cup's in moving from home-and-away ties toward a finals week.
Governance
The competition is owned and administered by the International Tennis Federation.