Coco Gauff will play for the United States in her hometown next month, as the Americans try to win their way back into the race for the Billie Jean King Cup. Gauff leads a five-player team named on Wednesday for the Play-off against Hungary on 21 and 22 November at the Delray Beach Tennis Center in Florida, where the U.S. has played four ties and won all four.
The last of them came in 2023, when Gauff and Jessica Pegula led a 4-0 sweep of Austria. This time she is joined by Madison Keys, Ann Li, Taylor Townsend and Nicole Melichar-Martinez. “This is an incredibly important tie for us to get back to competing for the Billie Jean King Cup title next year, so all of us will be solely focused on accomplishing that,” said U.S. captain Lindsay Davenport.
“I’m grateful to be able to nominate a team with three Top 25 players in singles and two Top 10 players in doubles at the end of a long season. That tells you how motivated our players are to get the USA back into title contention, and certainly Coco always wants to win on her home turf.”
How the U.S. got here. Davenport took the Americans to the final last year. This April they lost 3-1 to Belgium on indoor clay in Ostend in the Qualifiers. McCartney Kessler retired with a back injury at 3-3 in the final set against Elise Mertens, and Greet Minnen clinched the tie by beating Iva Jovic 7-5, 6-3. The only American point came in doubles, from Caty McNally and Melichar-Martinez.
The team. Gauff, 22 and ranked fifth, is 47-15 in singles this year, with semifinals at Wimbledon and the US Open. Keys, the 2025 Australian Open champion and No. 21, won the 11th title of her career this season and has represented the U.S. in the competition eight times since 2014, though never in Delray Beach. Li, ranked 25th, has her first nomination. Townsend, No. 2 in doubles, completed the career Grand Slam in doubles this year with the French Open and US Open titles and is 39-4 in doubles in 2026. Melichar-Martinez is No. 9 in doubles.
Hungary. The visitors have nominated Anna Bondar, ranked 75th, Dalma Galfi (No. 153) and Amarissa Toth (No. 445), with doubles players Fanny Stollar (No. 60) and Adrienn Nagy (No. 187). Kornel Bardoczky is the captain. “Hungary will be bringing a team with experience and talent, and they’ll be ready to compete,” Davenport said.
Canada in Brazil. Canada, the 2023 champions, play away, on outdoor clay in Vitória, on 20 and 21 November. Bianca Andreescu, Kayla Cross, Gabriela Dabrowski and Ariana Arseneault make up the team. Brazil’s five includes Luisa Stefani, Dabrowski’s doubles partner: the pair have won six titles together this season, three of them at WTA 1000 level in Dubai, Beijing and Wuhan, and have qualified for the WTA Finals. In Vitória they are on opposite teams. Laura Pigossi, Gabriela Ce, Nauhany Vitoria Leme Da Silva and Luiza Fullana complete the Brazilian side.
Canada lead the head-to-head 12-0. The last meeting was in 2013, when Sharon Fichman and Dabrowski won the deciding doubles. Andreescu won the WTA 125 event in Rovereto last week, her biggest title since 2019, and will represent Canada in the competition for the ninth time. Canada reached the Play-offs by losing 3-1 to Kazakhstan in the Qualifiers; Brazil came up from their Regional Group I by beating Chile, Argentina, Peru and Mexico.
“We know how challenging away ties can be, but we’re thrilled to be bringing such a strong team that puts us in a good position to come away with the win,” said Canada captain Heidi El Tabakh. “We’ll be ready to compete from the first point and do everything we can to get the job done against a challenging Brazilian team.”
The format. Each tie is a best-of-five series over two days: two singles on the first day, then the doubles and two reverse singles on the second, with the first nation to three points going through. The opening singles are between each team’s top two nominated players. In Delray Beach, the captains may make up to three changes to their nominations until 20 November, and play starts at 1:30 p.m. Eastern on both days. Maja Chwalinska, who won her first career title in Wuhan last week, is also among the players nominated for this year’s Play-offs, which run from 20 to 22 November.
What’s at stake. The winners go into the 2027 Qualifiers, the round that decides the field for the Finals. The losers drop to their Regional Group I events. Both are played in April 2027. Czechia are the champions after beating Ukraine in the final in Shenzhen in September. How the competition’s levels fit together is explained in our Billie Jean King Cup guide, and the competition’s records are in our records page.
