On Day 1 of the Billie Jean King Cup Qualifiers, three Grand Slam champions made history: Emma Raducanu achieved a historic triumph on clay, while Naomi Osaka and Iga Swiatek both gave their nations early leads.
The eight Billie Jean King Cup Qualifiers matches that take place this weekend will determine who advances to the Seville, November Billie Jean King Cup Finals.
Leading Japan’s offensive on its own territory is Osaka
With her victory over Yulia Putintseva 6-2, 7-6(5) on Friday in Tokyo, former world no. 1 Osaka gave Japan an early 2-0 lead over Kazakhstan in the Billie Jean King Cup.
The hosts’ campaign had begun earlier when No. 79-ranked Nao Hibino defeated Anna Danilina 6-1, 6-0 in just 57 minutes.
Osaka defeated a rival with whom she had previously had difficulty, enhancing her overall Billie Jean King Cup record to 6-2. She faced defeat in her first three meetings with Putintseva in 2018–19, but she has since defeated the Kazakh opponent twice in a row, both at home.
Osaka converted her first match chance with a precise backhand winner down the line in a closely contested second set that went to the wire following a commanding first set.
Osaka, who returned from maternity leave in January and is currently ranked No. 193, was competing in her first Billie Jean King Cup since February 2020.
France and Great Britain are tied after Raducanu’s return.
The three-time champions began the match with a sizable home edge as they hosted Great Britain on clay at Le Portel. During the first sixty minutes of the game, this was confirmed.
With a well-executed effort, Diane Parry defeated Katie Boulter 6-2, 6-0, winning 12 games in a row after falling behind 2-0. Parry, rated No. 49 and making her debut appearance in the Top 50 this week, skillfully exposed her opponent’s inexperience on the surface with a combination of variation and courtcraft. Boulter is still without a clay-court match at the tour level.
Nevertheless, Raducanu, the former US Open champion, leveled the match against Caroline Garcia after trailing 3-6, 6-3, 6-2. Despite matching Garcia baseline to baseline in the opening set, the Briton’s increased ability to understand the Frenchwoman’s serve proved to be crucial to the comeback.
In the first set, Raducanu only managed three points on Garcia’s opening serve, but in the second set, he won more than half of those points. Garcia’s first serve percentage fell to 38% in the decider, and Raducanu exploited this by consistently teeing off on her second serve for easy wins. The 21-year-old made only 11 unforced errors in 25 total wins, including 16 off the forehand side.
This was Raducanu’s first Top 30 victory since she beat Beatriz Haddad Maia at Indian Wells 2023. It was also her first career Top 30 victory on clay.
Poland was raised in Switzerland by Swiatek and Frech
The 2022 winners, Switzerland, also enjoyed home-court advantage because they were hosting Poland on the Biel indoor hard courts. However, the rankings greatly benefitted their guests because Belinda Bencic, a key member of the Swiss squad for many years, is currently on maternity leave.
Simona Waltert was the opponent that world No. 1 Swiatek had not played since their junior years; Swiatek had defeated Waltert in the second round of the 2018 Wimbledon juniors to win the championship. She repeated the victory 6-3, 6-1, although the score doesn’t reflect the work it took to defeat Waltert, who was rated No. 158. Throughout the course of the game, Swiatek faced 14 break points, but she was able to repel 13 of them.
After a thrilling two hours and fifty-two minutes, Magdalena Frech defeated Celine Naef 6-7(8), 7-5, 6-3 to give the visitors a 2-0 lead at the end of Day 1. The 18-year-old Swiss player won the first set with outstanding point creation and aggressive play, and at 5-4 in the second set, she served to win the match.
However, Frech persevered through several protracted rallies to progressively tip the scales in her favor, and she pulled away in the final set to outlast the teenager.
Americans outlive teenagers from Belgium.
On Friday in Florida, Jessica Pegula and Emma Navarro had to muster every bit of their elite form to take a 2-0 lead over Belgium. Neither of the two 19-year-olds that the two Top 25 players had to battle through had ever met a Top 100 player before.
World No. 5 Pegula overcame big-hitting Sofia Costoulas, a previous Top 5 junior, in three sets, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3. World No. 21 Navarro ended a difficult day against two outstanding young players by rallying the Americans to a 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 victory over Hanne Vandewinkel.
Germany, Austria, Slovakia, and Ukraine Grab the Lead Early
On the opening day in Brisbane, hosts Australia led Mexico 2-0. Earlier this year, Arina Rodionova made history by becoming the oldest player to debut inside the Top 100. She defeated Giuliana Olmos 3-6, 6-3, 6-1, to start the tie.
In just 51 minutes, former No. 20 Daria Saville supported her compatriot by easily winning her rubber against Marcela Zacarias 6-1, 6-0.
Day 1 ended with hosts Slovakia in Bratislava leading Slovenia 2-0. Ela Milic, who was eighteen, was upset by Anna Karolina Schmiedlova 6-4, 6-3, while Viktoria Hruncakova defeated Veronika Erjavec 6-1, 5-7, 6-3.
Moreover, Ukraine defeated Romania 2-0 to end the first day. Lesia Tsurenko defeated Ana Bogdan 3-6, 6-2, 6-0 to start the tie. Elina Svitolina, the top-seeded player in Ukraine, defeated Jaqueline Cristian, the Charleston quarterfinalist, 6-3, 7-5.
Germany took a 2-0 lead over their home team, Brazil, late in the day. Laura Siegemund defeated Beatriz Haddad Maia 6-4, 6-2 to record her 19th Top 20 victory of the career. Tatjana Maria defeated Laura Pigossi 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 to increase the German lead.