{"id":427281,"date":"2025-09-15T21:52:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T21:52:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/427281\/"},"modified":"2025-09-15T21:52:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T21:52:14","slug":"great-britain-preparing-for-billie-jean-king-cup-opener-against-japan-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/427281\/","title":{"rendered":"Great Britain preparing for Billie Jean King Cup opener against Japan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>British number one Raducanu pulled out of the team event to focus on her wild card entry to the Korea Open, and as the fixtures clash she was replaced earlier this month by Fran Jones.<\/p>\n<p>Katie Boulter, Sonay Kartal and Jodie Burr make up the rest of the team, who start against Japan on September 18 at the Shenzhen Bay Sports Centre.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/2.80589477.jpg\" alt=\"Fran Jones\" data-title=\"HSBC Championships \u2013 Day Two \u2013 The Queen\u2019s Club\" data-copyright-holder=\"PA Wire\" data-copyright-notice=\"PA Wire\/PA Images\" data-credit=\"John Walton\" data-usage-terms=\"Use subject to restrictions. Editorial use only, no commercial use without prior consent from rights holder.\"  \/>Fran Jones replaced Emma Raducanu in the Great Britain squad (John Walton\/PA)<\/p>\n<p>Prior to that it is the home nation who open the event, with the 17th-ranked Chinese team facing reigning champions Italy, who are led by the in-form Jasmine Paolini.<\/p>\n<p>She said: \u201cIt\u2019s great to be back playing the Billie Jean King Cup with the team. I really like to play in a team. Every time it\u2019s an honour, of course, to represent Italy in this competition.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have been practising together, enjoying the time together. It\u2019s fun. Maybe it\u2019s a bit different from a single tournament but I really like it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHopefully I\u2019m going to play to a good level. If I play tomorrow I\u2019m going to fight until the last ball. Hopefully it\u2019s going to be a good match for us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Spain\u2019s first clash in Shenzhen is against Ukraine, with Kazakhstan, whose team includes 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina, facing the USA before the quarter-final stage closes with Britain\u2019s tie against Japan.<\/p>\n<p>Rybakina individually has a strong record in the Billie Jean King Cup, winning nine of 11 singles clashes in the event and coming into the tournament on a five-match winning streak.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/2.80881511.jpg\" alt=\"Elena Rybakina\" data-title=\"Wimbledon 2025 \u2013 Day Four \u2013 All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club\" data-copyright-holder=\"PA Wire\" data-copyright-notice=\"PA Wire\/PA Images\" data-credit=\"Ben Whitley\" data-usage-terms=\"Editorial use only. No commercial use without prior written consent of the AELTC. Still image use only \u2013 no moving images to emulate broadcast. No superimposing or removal of sponsor\/ad logos.\"  \/>Elena Rybakina is in the Kazakhstan squad (Ben Whitley\/PA)<\/p>\n<p>She said: \u201cI honestly didn\u2019t know about the statistics but it\u2019s good that the statistics are positive.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHopefully it\u2019s going to be the same this week, it\u2019s really important to play for your country, for sure.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a big motivation and also pressure at the same time, but I\u2019m really happy to be with the team here.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHopefully we can get the win. I think we have a chance, the team is really strong.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The semi-finals take place over the following two days, with the final scheduled for September 21.<\/p>\n<p>Should Great Britain, who are ranked second in the tournament, make it to the final they will bid to win it for the first time after partaking every year since its inception as the Federation Cup in 1963.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"British number one Raducanu pulled out of the team event to focus on her wild card entry to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":426437,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5018,3,4],"tags":[748,393,4884,1144,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-427281","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"category-uk","9":"category-united-kingdom","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-northern-ireland","14":"tag-scotland","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115210534571187248","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=427281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/426437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=427281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=427281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=427281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}