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Fed Cup by BNP Paribas - History

In 1919, Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman initiated the idea of a tournament for women's tennis teams. She encountered resistance, but she persevered and offered a trophy (the Wightman Cup) for an annual tournament between the United States and Great Britain, two countries that were the undisputed leaders in tennis at the time.

Hazel Hotchkiss's initial idea gained the support of Nell Hopman, wife of Harry Hopman, the legendary captain of the Davis Cup Australian team. However, final plans for a women's tennis team tournament were not completed until 1962, when Mary Hardwick Hare, an Englishwoman living in the United States, submitted a dossier demonstrating the widespread support for such an event. This petition convinced the ITF: it finally recognized that a weeklong team tournament to be held in a different location each year was a good idea.

Thus, the Federation Cup, the flagship tournament of women's tennis, was finally launched in 1963, in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the International Tennis Federation. The tournament met with resounding success and became – both for players and spectators – one of the foremost international tennis events.

This success was first and foremost attributable to the great players of the era, Margaret Court and Billie Jean King, whose support was a tremendous boon to the tournament. In an ironic twist of fate, the two players faced each other as finalists in the first Federation Cup in 1963 on the grass courts of the Queen's Club in London. The United States carried the day.

The inaugural tournament attracted 16 teams. At the time, expenses incurred, often involving travel to distant countries, were the teams' responsibility and many countries were unable to participate. Everything changed when the tournament found corporate sponsorship. The Colgate Group was the first sponsor in 1976, and NEC, the Japanese communications and computer giant followed from 1981 until 1994. Seventy-three nations competed in that year, a record number at the time. This increase in participation led to a regional qualifying competition in 1992, then to significant changes in the structure of the Fed Cup between 1995 and 2006.

Since 2005, the Fed Cup has consisted of two world groups (World Group and World Group II), each having eight countries. Competition in the World Group takes place over three weekends in a home-and-away knockout format, with the winning nation crowned Fed Cup champion. The four first round losers from the World Group compete against the four first round winners from World Group II in play-offs. The four first round losers from World Group II also compete in play-offs against four qualifiers from regional events. All other countries participate in these regional events.

The list of players who have participated in the Fed Cup is, to say the least, impressive. Names such as Billie Jean King, Margaret Court, Chris Evert, Virginia Wade, Martina Navratilova and Steffi Graf feature prominently, along with a number of contemporary stars, including Anastasia Myskina, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Justine Henin-Hardenne, Kim Clijsters, Amélie Mauresmo, and Serena and Venus Williams.

The growth in the tournament demonstrates the enduring success of Fed Cup, which included 76 participating countries in 2005. The tournament benefits from the participation of the finest players, fills the stadiums with enthusiastic spectators, and can count on a worldwide television audience and intense media coverage.