Bahraini women’s team named for Billie Jean King Cup tennis

TDT | Manama    

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

A four-player women’s national tennis team will be flying the Bahrain flag when the Kingdom hosts this week the 2023 Billie Jean King Cup Asia/Oceania Zone Group III.

The prestigious competition is set to be held at the Bahrain Tennis Federation (BTF) courts in Isa Town, with 14 countries from across the continent taking part.

Play begins tomorrow and continues until Saturday.

The BTF announced yesterday the Bahraini players who are set to compete.

They include Hajar Zidane, Haneen Al Najjar, Salma Faraj and Maryam Yasser.

The nationals have been training over the past several weeks under the supervision of coaches Safa Safar and Ariel Baldivino.

The draw for the tournament’s preliminary round is scheduled to be held at 12noon today at the BTF headquarters.

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

Following a single round-robin, the top team from each group will 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 participating nations 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.

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 event, with teams playing for promotion to the higher-tier group.

Following this competition, the BTF will continue to remain busy with the 2023 Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Group V matches 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.