The Billie Jean King Cup 2024 changes format again for the Seville Finals. And, if on the one hand this is a novelty that is at least welcomed by the women’s circuit because it puts at least some distance from the WTA Finals, on the other hand it sees the creation of a sort of funnel from which the women’s team competition is unable to escape.
Let’s start with the positive factor: the fact of starting on Tuesday 12 November, with what will no longer be a group stage. In fact, four first rounds have been established, to be played on 12, 13 and 14 November. Since the WTA Finals, which will be held in Riyadh, will end on November 9, players coming from there will have a minimum of three days to travel from Saudi Arabia to Seville. In practice, an attempt to have the big (Iga Swiatek in the lead: the Pole has been very critical about the programming for a couple of years).
The quarter-finals will be played on 15, 16 and 17 November. And here is another novelty: there are four teams directly qualified for the same. These are Canada, Italy, Czech Republic and Australia, which are the top four in the Billie Jean King Cup ranking. Basically, it’s a formula that help the blue team to have a few more days to prepare for their debut. The semi-finals will be played on 18 and 19 November and the final on 20 November.
Let’s get to the points, if we want, which have very little positive. Given that the atavistic problem of simultaneity with the ATP Finals in Turin remains, an event which also attracts significant attention from the tennis community, it should be noted that the final will be played on Wednesday. Not only that: it is also admitted by the ITF itself that there will be a minimal overlap with the Davis Cup quarter-finals, which will begin on November 19th in Malaga. In short, a formula that already has its critical points at least in terms of how it was included in the programming.
