The 2020âÂÂ21 Billie Jean King Cup was the 58th edition of the international women's tennis team's tournament and the first to be styled as the Billie Jean King Cup in honor of former World No. 1 Billie Jean King.
For this edition, the format of the cup was changed. The main modification is the World Group taking place at one location and in one week, with twelve teams divided in four round-robin groups of three teams each, with the winners of each group advancing to the semi-finals. The series between the teams in this stage featured two singles matches and one doubles match. As the World Group takes place as one single tournament, the event has been named the Billie Jean King Cup Finals. The lower zone groups I, II and III were composed of round-robin group play deciding promotion or relegation.
This edition was played over two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic: The Finals were originally scheduled to be held 17 to 18 April 2020 but were postponed to the following year and finally took place in November 2021.
Albania, Ghana, Guam, Mongolia, Nigeria, and Rwanda made their first appearances in the tournament.
Date: 1âÂÂ6 November 2021 <br> Venue: O2 Arena, Prague, Czech Republic <br> Surface: Hard (i)
12 nations took part in the Finals, formerly known as World Group. The qualification was as follows:
Date: 7âÂÂ8 February 2020
Sixteen teams played for eight spots in the Finals, in series decided on a home and away basis.
These sixteen teams were:
The 8 losing teams from the qualifying round played the new play-offs, which ranked the 8 nations that were promoted from the Regional Group I from Americas, Europe/Africa and Asia/Oceania, to see who had to play the 2022 Qualifiers and who stayed in the Regional Group I in 2022.
#: Nations Ranking as of 29 June 2019.
T = Ties, M = Matches, S = Sets
Date: 16âÂÂ17 April 2021
Sixteen teams played for eight spots in the 2022 qualifying round, in series decided on a home and away basis.
These Sixteen teams were:
Eight winners advanced to the 2022 qualifying round and eight losers contest regional Group I event in 2022.
Seeded teams
Unseeded teams
Venue: Club Palestino, Santiago, Chile (clay)
Dates: 5âÂÂ8 February 2020
Venue 1: Centro de Alto Rendimiento Fred Maduro, Panama City, Panama (clay) <br/> Venue 2: Club de Tenis La Paz, La Paz, Bolivia (clay)
Dates: 23âÂÂ26 June 2021 (Panama City) and 27âÂÂ30 October 2021 (La Paz)
Venue: Aviation Club Tennis Centre, Dubai, United Arab Emirates (hard)
Dates: 3âÂÂ7 March 2020
Promotions
Venue 1: Renouf Tennis Centre, Wellington, New Zealand (hard) <br/> Venue 2: <s>Sri Lanka Tennis Association Complex, Colombo, Sri Lanka (clay)</s>
Dates: 4âÂÂ8 February 2020 (Wellington)
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the event in Sri Lanka could not be held. The Billie Jean King Cup committee decided that in light of the challenges of identifying and appointing a new host nation during the remainder of the 2021 tennis season, the event would take place in 2021. The seven competing nations, Hong Kong China, Iran, Malaysia, Oman, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan and Vietnam, remained in Asia/Oceania Group II, and they competed in the 2022 competition.
Remaining nations
Remaining nations
Venue 1: Tallinn Tennis Center, Tallinn, Estonia (indoor hard) <br/> Venue 2: Centre National de Tennis, Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg (indoor hard)
Dates: 5âÂÂ8 February 2020
Venue: Tali Tennis Center, Helsinki, Finland (indoor hard)
Dates: 4âÂÂ7 February 2020
Venue: SEB Arena, Vilnius, Lithuania (indoor hard)
Dates: 15âÂÂ19 June 2021