Some of the top names from the WTA Tour will descend on Shenzhen this week to take part in the Billie Jean King Cup Finals.
Described as the ‘World Cup of tennis’, eight women’s teams and almost 40 players are set to do battle over six days between September 16-21 in a bid to lift the title and write their names in the history books.
Defending champions Italy are seeking to reach the title match for the third year in succession but are set to face strong competition, with a strong USA team and former BJK Cup powerhouses Spain among those teams hoping to go all the way.
The BJK Cup is a rare chance for the sport’s leading lights to compete in a team environment, but they all still have individual jobs to do. Here we look at five players to keep an eye out for at the Shenzhen Bay Sports Centre Arena.
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Who is playing at the Billie Jean King Cup 2025? Stars to watch
Jasmine Paolini (Italy)
Paolini’s career had been something of a slow burner until 2024 when, at the age of 28, it ignited in stunning fashion.
The diminutive Tuscan reached her first three Grand Slam finals — Wimbledon singles and French Open singles and doubles, claimed Olympic doubles gold and finished it off by helping Italy win the BJK Cup title for the first time since 2013.
The 29-year-old has since lifted her first major crown, winning the 2025 French Open doubles in a repeat of her Olympic success alongside BJK Cup team-mate Sara Errani, and has become a fixture in the Top 10 of both the WTA singles and doubles rankings.
Paolini won the BJK Cup Finals ‘Heart Award’ last year after winning four of her five matches in Malaga and she will hope to shine again in Shenzhen as Italy chase a third successive final appearance.
Jessica Pegula (USA)
With compatriot Coco Gauff, the world No. 3, not involved at the Finals, Pegula will be the top-ranked player at the BJK Cup and will lead a powerful USA team looking to win their first title since 2017.
The 31-year-old has yet to win a major title but reached the US Open singles final in 2024 and fell just short of a repeat performance this year, losing 4-6 6-3 6-4 to defending champion Aryna Sabalenka in the last four.
Pegula also reached the French Open doubles final in 2022, alongside Gauff, and was ranked as the number one doubles player in the world in 2023, so she could pose a double threat for the USA at the BJK Cup Finals.
Pegula pulled out of the USA team in the lead-up to last year’s competition, where the record 18-time winners were knocked out in the first round, but boasts a win-loss record of 5-1 (singles) and 1-1 (doubles) in the competition.
Elena Rybakina (Kazakhstan)
Kazakhstan have reached three of the four BJK Cup Finals — missing out last year — since making their debut in 2022 and Rybakina’s influence and contributions to their rise in the tennis world cannot be understated.
She made her big breakthrough three years ago when she won Wimbledon to become the first Kazakh player to lift a Grand Slam singles trophy.
The Moscow-born 26-year-old also reached the Australian Open final in 2023 and climbed to a career-high third in the world rankings later that year as she went from strength to strength.
Injuries and illness curtailed her progress in 2024, forcing her to miss the Olympics, but she heads into the BJK Cup Finals back in the top 10 of the WTA rankings and will look to continue her formidable record in the competition, where she has won nine of her 10 singles matches.
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Katie Boulter (Great Britain)
With the withdrawal of British number one Emma Raducanu — the nation’s only female major winner since 1977 — Katie Boulter’s importance to Anne Keothavong’s team has become ever more acute.
Britain are still chasing their maiden BJK Cup title, finishing runners-up in 1967, 1971, 1972 and 1981, and they will hope Boulter can recapture the form that saw her rise into the world’s Top 25 at the end of last year.
The 29-year-old has had a difficult 2025 on the WTA Tour and dropped out of the Top 50 after losing in the first round of the US Open, but she and Raducanu were influential in helping GB reach the 2024 BJK Cup semi-finals in Malaga and much could depend on her performances in Shenzhen.
Boulter, a Heart Award winner during the 2019 BJK Cup, is the most experienced member of the team and has an impressive win-loss record of 16-6 from 18 ties in the competition.
Elina Svitolina (Ukraine)
Elina Svitolina has already gained recognition for her performances in this year’s BJK Cup, winning the Heart Award in qualifying after helping Ukraine beat Australia and Colombia, and she will head to China as her country’s star turn.
Ukraine are playing in the BJK Cup Finals for the first time in their history — having previously made World Group appearances in 2010 and 2012 — and they will look to the experience and class of world number 13 Svitolina to guide them in their pursuit of a maiden title.
The 30-year-old has yet to reach a grand slam final and fell at the first hurdle in the recent US Open but she has been in the top three of the world rankings, won 18 WTA Tour singles titles and claimed a bronze medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Ukraine launch their BJK Cup Finals campaign against Spain with Svitolina set to face world number 20 Paula Bodasa in a potentially critical singles rubber
