Tennis Betting Federation Cup

Federation Cup (FED CUP) is to women’s tennis what Davis Cup is to men’s: a premier team competition. The Fed Cup was launched in 1963 to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the International Tennis Federation, but the concept can be traced back as early as 1919, when Mrs. Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman came up with the idea for a women’s team competition. At first, this idea was reject. Undeterred Wightman commissioned a trophy in 1923 for an annual contest between United States and Great Britain – the two nations that were the most successful tennis-playing nations at the time.

It was not until in 1962, when Mary Hardwick Hare presented a report to the ITF, which provided overwhelming proof that a women’s team competition would be supported, that the association sanctioned the event.

It had taken forty years for women to achieve what had taken the men next to no time to realize with the Davis Cup, largely due to a reluctant body that resisted the idea since the early 1920’s. Finally, in 1963, the Fed Cup made its debut. The ITF launched the event to coincide with its 50th anniversary, opening it to all nations and not just the USA and Great Britain. Its inauguration was met with resounding success.

Played over one week in a different venue each year, the Fed Cup in its first year attracted 16 nations. Top players supported the event from its onset. Queen’s Club, London was the scene for the first contest between Australia and USA; Grand Slam champions Darlene Hard. Billie Jean King, Margaret Smith and Lesley Turner struck an audible chord as they proudly represented their countries, which resonated through the women’s circuit and around the world. It was only fitting that the great Margaret Court and Billie Jean King, such proponents of the game and the competition, clashed in the final of the inaugural Federation Cup. The USA emerged the triumphant nation and has since then left an indelible mark on the competition, collecting 17 titles over the years.

Today, the Fed Cup hosts more than 80 nations and over 350 players annually. It has come a long way from Wightman’s glimmering dream of a hope for a premier team competition for women to an opportunity for many nations to develop and grow the game; in turn, spreading worldwide the joys of the sport we have all come to love.

The 11 nations to have won the Fed Cup are, in order of number of titles: