What's Next For the NZ Billie Jean King Cup Team?

New Zealand’s Billie Jean King Cup team topped their group in the Asia/Oceania Group I tournament in Pune, India over the weekend, qualifying for the play-offs.

The play-offs are being held during the week of 10th November 2025 (venue TBC). New Zealand is one of 21 nations competing with the format being seven groups of three teams. Only the winner of the group will progress to the qualifiers to be held in 2026.

Competing in the play-offs will be New Zealand, and other Group I teams that qualified like India. As well as teams who did not progress to the finals this year from qualifying like Canada, Romania, Australia, Poland, Germany, and the Netherlands.

The New Zealand team to compete in the November playoffs will be named approximately eight weeks before the tie or unless stated otherwise in the selection policy.

What Is the Billie Jean King Cup?

The Billie Jean King Cup is the “world cup of tennis." It’s the women’s team event at an international level, where countries put forward their best team to compete against other nations. The men’s equivalent is the Davis Cup.

The Billie Jean King Cup used to be called the Federation Cup (1963-1995) and Fed Cup (1995-2020). There are over 140 teams competing in the Billie Jean King Cup, with Italy the current champions.

How Does the Billie Jean King Cup Work?

There are a number of different stages to the Billie Jean King Cup. All stages except for the finals are a round-robin format, where the top team(s) progress. The finals are the only stage played with a knockout format. In order from lowest-ranked to the final stage:

Regional Group IV
Regional Group III
Regional Group II
Regional Group I
Play-Offs
Qualifiers
Finals

Here is how it all works:

Regional Groups (Group IV, Group III, Group II, Group I)

The regional groups are split into Europe, Africa, The Americas and Asia/Oceania. If you do well, you move up a group. If you’re already in Group I and perform well (like New Zealand), you move on to the play-offs.

Play-Offs

All of the teams who got promoted from Group I progress to the play-offs. The rest of the teams are made up of those who did not progress to the finals from the qualifying stage.

This is again a round-robin format, this time with a number of smaller groups (three teams).

If you win your group, you make it to the 2026 Qualifiers. The remaining teams are back to Group I.

Qualifiers

Again a round-robin format with six groups of three teams. The six group winners progress to the final stage.

The remaining 12 nations that don’t progress will next compete in the play-offs.

Finals

The last eight teams will decide a winner in a knockout tournament, with quarter-finals, semis, and a final. Last year's winners (Italy) and the hosts (China) automatically qualify for the finals.

The winners of the final are the Billie Jean King Cup Champions.

How Do You Win A Tie?

Contests between nations usually consist of two singles matches and a doubles match, each worth one point. The first team to two points wins the tie. Depending on the round you are in, nations may play first to three points, best of five matches.

Timing

The Regional qualifying is held at the same time as the qualifying events. This is because the 2025 Billie Jean King Cup was already up to the qualifying stage, with the 2025 finals being played in September this year.

So New Zealand has made it to the play-offs to be in contention for the 2026 Billie Jean King Cup title.