Jessica Pegula clinched Billie Jean King Cup Qualifying victory for the third straight year on Saturday, sending the U.S. into the Finals with a 6-2, 6-0, singles triumph over Hanne Vandewinkel at the USTA National Campus.
Caroline Dolehide and Taylor Townsend capped the tie with a 6-2, 6-1, dead doubles win over Marie Benoit and Kimberley Zimmermann, giving captain Lindsay Davenport a clean sweep in her debut tie.
The U.S. joins a 12-nation Finals field of defending champions Canada, runners-up Italy, host nation Spain, wild card Czechia and fellow Qualifiers Australia, Switzerland, Great Britain, Japan, Slovakia and the winners of Ukraine-Romania and Brazil-Germany. The Finals will be played in November in Seville, Spain, with specific dates to be announced.
On Friday in the opening day of play, it took two come-from-behind victories over four-and-a-half hours on court, but Pegula and Emma Navarro gutted out two, comeback three set matches.
Pegula and Navarro each outlasted spirited efforts from their young and talented Belgian counterparts, each coming from a set down to give the U.S. a 2-0 lead.
The world No. 5 Pegula defeated 19-year-old Sofia Costoulas, a former world junior No. 2 now ranked No. 279 in the WTA rankings, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3, in Friday night’s first singles match. Navarro, making her Billie Jean King Cup debut, also came back from losing the first set to defeat Hanne Vandewinkel, also 19 and ranked No. 278, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.
