LONDON, (Reuters) – Almost 60 years after Billie Jean King helped the United States win the inaugural Fed Cup, the team event is being re-named in honour of the greatest trailblazer in women’s tennis.
The competition, revamped this year to feature a 12-nation finals week to rival the men’s Davis Cup, would from 2021 be known as the Billie Jean King Cup, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) said in a statement.
This year’s finals, scheduled for Budapest in April, were postponed for a year because of the coronavirus pandemic.
King, a 12-times Grand Slam singles champion and the founder of the Women’s Tennis Association, said she was “humbled” to have the competition named after her.
“Very proud, very humbled,” the 76-year-old told Reuters by telephone. “I keep thinking it’s a dream. And then I start thinking about what an opportunity this is to help the game grow globally.
“(The Federation Cup) was 63 years behind the Davis Cup but we’ve gone from 16 to 116 nations.
“We have equal prize money to the Davis Cup and this sends out an important and strong message of equality.”
The Billie Jean Cup, sponsored by BNP Paribas, is the first major global team competition to be named after a woman and next year’s Finals in Hungary will boast $12 million in prize money, equivalent to the revamped Davis Cup.
ITF President David Haggerty paid tribute to King’s fight for gender equality in sport and society.
