Bahrain set for Billie Jean King Cup tennis

TDT | Manama    

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

The Bahrain Tennis Federation (BTF) is all set to host the first of five major international tennis tournaments over the next several weeks.

The 2023 Billie Jean King Cup Asia/Oceania Zone Group III gets underway on Wednesday and continues until Saturday, featuring 14 women’s national teams from across the continent.

The competing squads are Bhutan, Brunei, Iran, Iraq, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Macau, Maldives, Nepal, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Vietnam and hosts Bahrain.

They will be competing for two qualifying berths for Group II in next year’s competition.

A number of the participating teams have already arrived in the Kingdom and begun their final preparations for the event.

The tournament’s draw will be held tomorrow at 12noon at the BTF headquarters in Isa Town.

The draw will divide the participating teams into four groups for the preliminary round—two with four teams and another two with three.

Play will begin on Wednesday in a single round-robin, after which the top team from each group advance to the next stage.

There, they will play for two qualifying cards while the remaining sides will compete for their best final classification.

The Billie Jean King Cup is a leading global tournament between national teams in women’s tennis.

The competition in the Kingdom, which is being held for the second time, is a zonal competition, with teams playing for promotion to the higher-tier group.

Following this competition, the BTF will continue to remain busy with the Asia/Oceania Group V matches in the 2023 Davis Cup from 23 to 30 October, and then three ITF junior competitions over three straight weeks.

Two of the championships will be J30 events, with the first being held from 30 October to 4 November, followed by a second from 6 November to 11 November.

The third, a J60 tournament, will then take place from 13 November to 18 November.

The Davis Cup is one of the premier world competitions for men’s tennis, run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF).

The Kingdom is hosting Asia/Oceania group matches for the third successive year.

Meanwhile, all three junior events are part of the ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors, featuring the world’s top tennis talents aged 13 to 18.

Each event in the Kingdom will feature play in boys’ and girls’ singles and doubles.