The Canadian squad, victorious in a smaller venue in Sevilla a year ago, will move to Málaga to an 11,000-seat arena to defend their BJK Cup title.
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Almost all of the best players in the world whose teams qualified for this year’s BJK Cup Finals will be there in November
Canada, which won the event a year ago at a smaller arena in Seville and toured the trophy around Canadian tennis venues this year, will try to defend its crown at a much bigger arena in Málaga, after some changes announced a few months ago.
Leylah Fernandez, Marina Stakusic, Rebecca Marino, Bianca Andrescu and top-class doubles specialist Gabriela Dabrowski will be on hand – subject to health, of course.
Notable absentees are Iga Swiatek for Poland, Coco Gauff for the U.S. and Barbora Krejcikova for Czechia, in an event that will take place Nov. 13-20.
The Polish team has a spare spot, nominating four players rather than the maximum allowed five (maybe … just in case).
So that’s the good news.
The bad news? The entire Davis Cup/ BJK Cup scene continues to be an inconsistent, flailing, almost desperately money-grubbing challenge.
It’s the saddest, craziest thing in tennis at the moment. And that’s saying something.
The latest – Davis Cup Finals in China?
The decision to have one of the four hosts for the Davis Cup Finals preliminaries last week be … China – with no Chinese team represented – makes more sense now. It was the only venue without a “home” nation team to boost interest and ticket sales.
It seems it was a pilot project. And it wasn’t a particularly successful one.
The Times of London reported Monday that the reign of the “new” Davis Cup in Spain is ending. And that a deal is in the works to move the entire eight-nation finals there by 2026.
Perhaps even 2025; the ITF confirmed to the Times that they haven’t finalized a host for the 2025 finals yet. Or for the 2026 edition. “We’ve had several bids so we’re working through that process,” an ITF spokeswoman told the Times.
Zhuhai, which didn’t exactly blow up the box office last week despite having the Americans and Germans in town, is reportedly the front runner although Guangzhou and Shenzhen are also said to be “in contention”.
Yes, Shenzhen – the city that once signed a 10-year deal for a ton of money with the WTA to host their year-end finals AND build a bespoke arena for the purpose … only to bail out and put the women’s tour into a financial situation from which they still haven’t recovered, and had to take Saudi money to help alleviate.
And yes, Asia – the place once touted as the likely destination of the revamped Davis Cup Finals – eight long years ago, when we first heard of Kosmos and Gerard Piqué – only to be fairly swiftly discarded as an option when the players made it clear they had no interest in another trip to Asia at the end of a long season.
If past is prologue …
The American team in Zhuhai last week, which was still an excellent team, didn’t have any of its top players: not Taylor Fritz, not Sebastian Korda, not Frances Tiafoe, not Ben Shelton.
The German team was without its top three players: Alexander Zverev, Jan-Lennard Struff and Dominik Koepfer.
While there were some injuries involved, there was no doubt that making a trip to China right after the US Open – and prolonging an already gruelling trip to Asia that is followed by indoor tournaments in Europe – was a big factor.
WOW 🤯
— Davis Cup (@DavisCup) September 15, 2024
Slovakia send us into a decider winning set 2 7-6(3) after saving three match points#DavisCup pic.twitter.com/XHucypFr3d
Will increasing the size of the honey pot, as the Times reports the Chinese would do, really make a difference in enticing the best players in the world to go all the way back down to Asia again, the week right after the ATP Tour finals in Turin?
Given it’s been abundantly clear for years that the Chinese fans have only turned out in reasonable numbers for the “Big 3” over the last 15 years with their interest in the next generation of stars still very much to be determined, that’s a big risk.
Not that the Chinese ever seem to be that concerned with how many fans actually show up.
An uneasy merger
There must be a lot going on in Spanish tennis, because there have been a number of changes in hosting venues – including the compressing of the BJK Cup and Davis Cup finals in Málaga rather late in the game.
There was another event due to be held in Spain this fall that also was relocated.
The ITF is branding it as the “World Cup of Tennis 2024” and a great thing, of course. But they didn’t change the scheduling, which means that the two events overlap.
(Again, going back to the Kosmos era, this was what they *planned* for it to be called. And even before that, in 2017, the ITF had announced a joint event that was trashed when … the member nations threw a monkey wrench into things at the 2017 ITF AGM).
The relocation of the BJK Cup finals from Sevilla to Málaga was “required by the event’s host partner, Junta de Andalacia”. Which seems … fairly cryptic.
And as this happened less than two months ago, with some fans of women’s tennis presumably already having made their travel and hotel plans and bought tickets, the move to a venue a two-hour drive away became another logistical hurdle to leap over with ticket re-issues and refunds or a long commute.
What does this mean? Scheduling uncertainty
Already, the BJK Cup finals will be held on a Wednesday-to-Wednesday schedule, which is awkward enough. And for fans who might want to travel there, involves a lot of dead days.
For example, fans of Naomi Osaka who want to cheer on Japan will have a first round on Thursday (there are … teams with byes this year – a new late twist!), another on Saturday and, if they make the semifinals, a tie on Monday night. Or perhaps, Tuesday morning!
Conversely, Canadian fans, whose team has a bye, would only have a quarterfinal Sunday (vs. Germany or Great Britain), a semifinal likely Tuesday and then a final on Wednesday.
Or not. There is no pool play, just straight knockout. So fans could plan to stay as much as a week – and perhaps only see their favorite team one time.
Not to mention this: why would anyone buy tickets for the semifinals or finals without having any idea which teams are playing?
Choosing certainty over uncertainty
The decision to have both the BJK and Davis Cups in the same place might have been a great idea – had it been planned from the start.
Instead, it could turn into a situation where fans with not-unlimited dollars to spend on tennis will have to make a choice.
And too often in those cases, the women pay the price. And in Spain most particularly, the host country and the pool from which most of the fans will come, women’s tennis has always played second fiddle.
Lets look at Tuesday, Nov. 19.
A women’s semifinal (teams to be determined) will begin at noon.
A men’s quarterfinal – which could feature Spain v Germany (Alcaraz and Zverev) or Italy vs Australia – will be the night session.
And Wednesday: you could attend a men’s quarterfinal during the day – or the BJK Cup Finals (teams to be determined) that night.
The Davis Cup draw will be held Thursday. Which means fans will know who is playing on the men’s side some two months before the actual tie.
And there’s every chance many of the top men will play; for the women’ we already know that most of the top women – Swiatek, No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka, No. 4 Elena Rybakina, No. 6 Coco Gauff, No. 7 Zheng Qinwen and No. 9 Maria Sakkari – will not.
Late starts nearly guaranteed
The challenge of squeezing six matches into a day is already daunting. But at least on three occasions during the women’s portion, the day-session start time of 10 a.m. will give them slight hope of finishing, emptying out the arena and starting night sessions at 5 p.m.
Maybe. Possibly. The opening ceremonies always take time. There often is at least 20 minutes between matches – more, if a singles player in the second rubber returns for a deciding doubles. And even a three-set women’s match can take three hours these days. There’s almost no chance that could fit into, say, six hours.
Once the men enter the fray, it becomes even more unrealistic.
The first quarterfinal on Nov. 19 begins at 5 p.m. – but the BJK Cup semifinal earlier in the day begins at … noon.
On Wednesday (men’s quarterfinal during the day, BJK Cup final at night), the start times are once again noon and 5 p.m.
It is entirely possible that at that 5 p.m. start time – for the biggest match of this event – the men’s quarterfinal could still be in the second singles match.
For the women players having to wait – not knowing when they’ll start – for the television networks (which are often different for the men and women) setting aside that time slot and having to fill, and for the fans, it’s insanity.
Even the 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. start times for the two men’s quarterfinals on Nov. 21 are a squeeze.
Waiting around – at the end of the season
At a time of the season when the players just want to get even a small break and head to the Maldives – or wherever the tennis players might heed the call of the beach this year – they will be sitting in Málaga waiting to play.
Spain and Poland will meet in a BJK Cup first round on Wed, Nov. 13. The winner won’t play again until … Saturday. So they’ll have to sit around, having to go off-site to practice, and wait.
On the Davis Cup side, the first quarterfinal will be Tuesday, Nov. 19. The winner of that tie will play on Friday night, at the earliest.
Same issues with waiting around, and practice challenges.
All in all, these once-storied events played for national pride before ebullient home crowds, are now a dog’s breakfast of … chaos.
Projected BJK Cup finals rosters
Australia
Olivia Gadecki
Daria Saville
Ajla Tomljanovic
Ellen Perez
Captain: Samantha Stosur
Canada
Leylah Fernandez
Marina Stakusic
Rebecca Marino
Bianca Andreescu
Gabriela Dabrowski
Captain: Heidi El Tabakh
Czechia
Linda Noskova
Katerina Siniakova
Marie Bouzkova
Karolina Muchova
Captain: Petr Pala
Great Britain
Katie Boulter
Emma Raducanu
Harriet Dart
Heather Watson
Olivia Nicholls
Captain: Anne Keothavong
Germany
Tatjana Maria
Jule Niemeier
Laura Siegemund
Eva Lys
Captain: Rainer Schüttler
Italy
Jasmine Paolini
Elisabetta Cocciaretto
Martina Trevisan
Lucia Bronzetti
Sara Errani
Captain: Tathiana Garbin
Japan
Moyuka Uchijima
Naomi Osaka
Nao Hibino
Eri Hozumi
Shuko Aoyama
Captain: Ai Sugiyama
Poland
Magdalena Fręch
Magda Linette
Maja Chwalińska
Katarzyna Kawa
Captain: Dawid Celt
Romania
Jaqueline Adina Cristian
Ana Bogdan
Elena Gabriela Ruse
Alexia Anca Todoni
Monica Niculescu
Captain: Horia Tecau
Slovakia
Anna Karolina Schmiedlova
Rebecca Sramkova
Viktoria Hruncakova
Renata Jamrichova
Tereza Mihalikova
Captain: Matej Liptak
Spain
Paula Badosa Gibert
Jessica Bouzas Maneiro
Cristina Bucsa
Nuria Parrizas Diaz
Sara Sorribes Tormo
Captain: Anabel Medina Garrigues
USA
Jessica Pegula
Danielle Collins
Caroline Dolehide
Taylor Townsend
Peyton Stearns
Captain: Lindsay Davenport
About Post Author
I like the idea of the men and women being at the same venue finally at the end of the year. In my opinion, this is great for Canadian fans that want to take the chance of showing up to this thing. But have a plan hahah… Sleep in, have a late breakfast around noon, do a bit of sightseeing in the early afternoon and the tennis at 5 pm to 2 am … what could be better !!! Unless our Canadian warriors get the early time slots… 🙁 ….
Except they might only play once each – and possibly a week apart at that – which is obviously mentioned in this piece. So perhaps that’s only for those who think there’s enough to do in Málaga in November in between. And for whom money is no object.