Glasgow’s Emirates Arena has been selected to host the Finals of the Billie Jean King Cup tennis tournament later this year.
The event will take place from November 8-13 and will mark the fourth time Great Britain has hosted the Finals of the tournament formerly known as the Fed Cup. London staged the inaugural event in 1963 before Eastbourne and Nottingham played host in 1977 and 1991, respectively.
Great Britain will compete as a host nation alongside Australia, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Italy, Kazakhstan, Poland, Spain, Slovakia, Switzerland and the US. Teams will compete in four round-robin groups of three nations, with the four group winners qualifying for the semi-finals.
The Lawn Tennis Association, which governs the sport in Great Britain, will use the event to raise awareness of tennis and encourage more women and girls to take up the sport.
Emirates Arena has experience of hosting major tennis events having staged men’s Davis Cup matches in recent years. The arena will also be one of four host venues for this year’s Davis Cup Finals group stages from November 21-27.
David Haggerty, president of the International Tennis Federation, said: “We are delighted to be bringing the 2022 Billie Jean King Cup by BNP Paribas Finals to Glasgow. The LTA presented a very impressive bid as part of a competitive hosting process.
“They have successfully hosted Davis Cup ties in Glasgow, and we look forward to having the Women’s World Cup of Tennis take place in front of passionate tennis fans from around the world in an electric atmosphere, at the culmination of the women’s tennis season.”
Scott Lloyd, chief executive of the LTA, added: “We have said that we were ambitious to bring more major events to Great Britain and raise the profile of tennis across the whole year, and I’m delighted that Glasgow will be hosting the Billie Jean King Cup Finals as well as the Davis Cup Finals group stage this year.”
Russia is the defending Billie Jean King Cup winner but has been banned from this year’s tournament because of the country’s invasion of Ukraine.
Last year’s Finals took place at the O2 Arena in Prague, Czech Republic. The event had originally been scheduled to take place in Budapest but the ITF terminated an agreement with the Hungarian capital amid challenges caused by the pandemic.
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