The USTA and the U.S. Billie Jean King Cup Team will welcome Team Ukraine to Asheville, N.C., and the Harrah’s Cherokee Center – Asheville for a Billie Jean King Cup by BNP Paribas Qualifying tie April 15-16, 2022.
The USTA will donate 10 percent of the ticket revenue from the event to the Ukraine Crisis Relief Fund by Global Giving, where local sponsors Harrah’s Cherokee Casinos, Ingles Markets and New Belgium Brewing Company will also make donations. The USTA will organize a number of visible support activations on the ground in Asheville and will encourage fans to make their own donations. Click to learn more or to donate to the Ukraine Crisis Relief Fund by Global Giving.
The teams representing both nations were nominated today:
- World No. 11 Danielle Collins, No. 19 Jessica Pegula, No. 38 Sloane Stephens, No. 49 Shelby Rogers and doubles No. 20 Desirae Krawczyk will represent the U.S. in Asheville for sixth-year Billie Jean King Cup captain Kathy Rinaldi.
- World No. 18 Elina Svitolina, No. 54 Marta Kostyuk, No. 210 Katarina Zavatska and doubles No. 30 Lyudmyla Kichenok and No. 37 Nadiia Kichenok will represent Ukraine.
“The USTA, along with all of tennis’ governing bodies, condemns the invasion of Ukraine and continues to advocate for peace,” said Stacey Allaster, Chief Executive, Professional Tennis, USTA. “We’re committed to welcoming the Ukrainian team and to making sure they have all the support they need leading up to and during the competition in Asheville. Together, we will use this event to continue advocating for peace, along with providing aid and support for the people of Ukraine.”
On March 1, the USTA joined the six governing bodies of tennis in a statement condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and taking a variety of steps, including: the suspension of ATP/WTA tour events; the indefinite suspension of all International Tennis Federation events in Russia and Belarus; the suspension of the Russian Tennis Federation and Belarus Tennis Federation from the ITF. The full statement can be read here.
The Billie Jean King Cup Qualifying matches in Asheville will be played Friday, April 15, and Saturday, April 16, on an indoor hardcourt inside Harrah’s Cherokee Center – Asheville, the third time the venue has hosted the competition – previously known as Fed Cup – since 2018.
The Qualifier is a best-of-five match series that begins Friday with two singles matches. Two reverse singles matches and the doubles match will follow on Saturday, with an amended Saturday schedule possible if one team clinches victory in the third or fourth match. The winner will advance to the 2022 Finals later this year at a location to be announced.
Tickets can be purchased at http://usta.com/bjkc or at Ticketmaster.
Collins, 28, is currently the top-ranked American singles player at No. 11. The two-time NCAA singles champion made her first Grand Slam singles final earlier this year at the Australian Open. She’s 4-0 in singles for the U.S. Billie Jean King Cup Team, including a 3-0 mark in the 2021 Finals in Prague and a singles win in Asheville in 2019.
Pegula, 28, is currently ranked No. 19 and reached a career-high No. 14 in the world earlier this year. She reached the quarterfinals of the Australian Open for the second straight year in 2022 and had seven wins over Top-10 opponents in 2021.
Stephens, 28, is currently ranked No. 38 and is a former world No. 3. The 2017 US Open singles champion was a part of the U.S. team that won the 2017 Billie Jean King Cup and has won seven career WTA singles titles, including this year in Guadalajara.
Rogers, 29, is currently ranked No. 49 and was ranked as high as No. 36 earlier this year. A part of the U.S. team that won the Billie Jean King Cup title in 2017, Rogers has reached the quarterfinals of the US Open and French Open in singles and the Australian Open and French Open in doubles.
Krawczyk, 28, is currently ranked No. 20 in doubles and reached a career-high No. 15 in January. Krawczyk won three of four Grand Slam events in mixed doubles in 2021, a feat only achieved by seven players in the Open Era (since 1968).
Billie Jean King Cup is the world’s largest annual international team competition in women’s sport, with approximately 100 nations taking part each year. Deloitte is the official sponsor and Wilson is the official ball of the U.S. Billie Jean King Cup Team.
# # #
The USTA is the national governing body for the sport of tennis in the U.S. and the leader in promoting and developing the growth of tennis at every level — from local communities to the highest level of the professional game. A not-for-profit organization with more than 655,000 members, it invests 100% of its proceeds in growing the game. It owns and operates the US Open, one of the highest-attended annual sporting events in the world, and launched the US Open Series, linking nine summer WTA and ATP Tour tournaments to the US Open. In addition, it owns approximately 90 Pro Circuit events throughout the U.S. and selects the teams for the Davis Cup, Billie Jean King Cup, Olympic and Paralympic Games. The USTA’s philanthropic entity, the USTA Foundation, provides grants and scholarships in addition to supporting tennis and education programs nationwide to benefit under-resourced youth through the National Junior Tennis & Learning (NJTL) network. For more information about the USTA, go to USTA.com or follow the official accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok.
ABOUT HARRAH’S CHEROKEE CENTER – ASHEVILLE (HCCA)
Harrah’s Cherokee Center – Asheville (HCCA), which features the ExploreAsheville.com Arena and Thomas Wolfe Auditorium, annually hosts a diverse variety of events that reflect the creativity, uniqueness, and artistry that Asheville, N.C., and Western North Carolina is known for primarily. In recent years, the facility has hosted world-class sporting events such as NBA Preseason Games, two Billie Jean King Cups by BNP Paribas ties, the annual Ingles Southern Conference Basketball Championships, Asheville Championship, and the Camping World Maui Invitational as well as music and performances by Bob Dylan, The Lumineers, Dave Chappelle, John Prine, Old Dominion, Sturgill Simpson, Kacey Musgraves, Widespread Panic, Billy Strings, Warren Haynes’ Christmas Jam, and more. For more information, visit HarrahsCherokeeCenterAsheville.com.
