Preview Billie Jean King Cup Final: Jasmine Paolini leads Italy against Jessica Pegula’s USA in a blockbuster showdown

Everything is set for the Billie Jean King Cup Final between the defending champions Italy—who have five titles—and the all-time record champions USA, who will be looking for their 19th title in the Billie Jean King Cup (formerly Fed Cup). The Europeans are coming off a series comeback against Ukraine, while the USA secured a convincing victory against Great Britain in the semifinals.

Elisabetta Cocciaretto and Emma Navarro will open the day, while in the second match, Jasmine Paolini will face off against Jessica Pegula in an attempt to clinch the series. In the event of a deciding doubles match, world No. 1 Taylor Townsend would team up with former No. 1 Pegula, facing one of the most talked-about pairs of the last couple of seasons: Paolini alongside Sara Errani.

Italy has been the most consistent team in the Billie Jean King Cup in recent years. After finishing as runner-up in 2023, defeated by Canada, they got their revenge in 2024, taking the title against Slovakia. Between 2006 and 2013, they reached five finals and won their first four titles in a golden generation of Italian women's tennis with players like Flavia Pennetta, Francesca Schiavone, Roberta Vinci, and Sara Errani. The latter is once again part of the team, 12 years after being part of the squad that won the title against Russia in 2013.

Errani was precisely key in the semifinals against Ukraine, coming out for the decisive doubles match with Jasmine Paolini and winning against Lyudmila Kichenok and Marta Kostyuk (6-2, 6-3). The Italians were on the brink of elimination against Ukraine after the loss of Elisabetta Cocciaretto to Marta Kostyuk (6-2, 6-3) and Paolini going a set down against Elina Svitolina. The world No. 8 fought back, turning around a tight match 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, and then teamed up with Errani to secure the victory in the doubles.

The USA team is back in a final for the most important tournament in women's national tennis for the first time since the Fed Cup became the Billie Jean King Cup in 2020. The USA's last final was in 2018 (a loss to the Czech Republic), and their last title was in 2017, with Coco Vandeweghe and Sloane Stephens as the team's main players.

This time, the Americans have Jessica Pegula and Emma Navarro as their singles duo, in addition to the presence of doubles world No. 1 Taylor Townsend as part of the team that defeated Kazakhstan and Great Britain along the way. The match against the British had no major complications, with victories for Emma Navarro over Sonay Kartal (3-6, 6-4, 6-3) and Jessica Pegula over Katie Boulter (3-6, 6-4, 6-2).

The first match will feature Elisabetta Cocciaretto (No. 91) against Emma Navarro (No. 18), in which the American is the heavy favorite. The Italian had a great performance in the quarterfinals against Yuan Yue, coming back from a set down and multiple breaks against the Chinese player before mounting a comeback. However, she faltered in the semifinals against Kostyuk, which complicated the series for her country.

On the other hand, Navarro has secured two victories in Shenzhen, although she has had to fight in both of her singles matches, winning in three sets against Putintseva and Kartal. Cocciaretto and Navarro have only one previous match, back at the 2024 Australian Open, where Navarro won in three sets.

This is the match that will define the night in Shenzhen, between two players who have dominated the Tour over the last couple of seasons and know each other well, with five previous matches—all of them, incidentally, wins for Pegula. However, their last encounter was back at the 2023 Canadian Open, when Paolini was still far from being the high-level player she would become in the latter half of that year and the following two seasons.

Paolini (No. 8) has won three-set battles against Wang Xinyu and Elina Svitolina and has once again been key to leading Italy to their third consecutive final. The two-time Grand Slam runner-up always gets a boost in her level when she plays for Italy and will pose a tough challenge for Pegula. This is undoubtedly an ideal stage to change her history against the American, who lost in the quarterfinals to Rybakina but got back on track with a tight victory in the semifinals against Katie Boulter to secure the USA's spot in the final.

IF the series need to be decided in the doubles, it will pit two teams with the strongest doubles credentials in these Finals against each other. On the European side, Paolini and Errani are one of the most successful pairings, currently tied at world No. 5. They are the champions of the Italian Open and French Open this year, with a total of eight titles as a team.

They will face current doubles No. 1 Taylor Townsend, who will likely team up with Jessica Pegula. While Pegula has not played much doubles in the last year, she was doubles world No. 1 just two seasons ago when she partnered with Coco Gauff, who is absent on this occasion.