Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula won't play for the United States at the 2023 Billie Jean King Cup Finals, becoming the latest big names to miss the event.
We've known for a very long time that Iga Swiatek won't play for Poland at the 2023 Billie Jean King Cup Finals, but the official confirmation came only on Monday, October 9, 2023, when the team's line-up was posted.
Official confirmation of other players missing the event also came down, and it's bad news for the United States and their team, as both of their highest-ranked players on the WTA Tour, Jessica Pegula and Coco Gauff, won't play for the country at the event.
It's not a huge surprise as the event continues to pay the price for a really questionable schedule which has the event starting just days after the WTA Finals conclude. Considering that most of the best players play at that event, it just becomes a conflict of schedules because players will opt for the Finals event.
That's the only reason why Gauff and Pegula won't play at the Billie Jean King Cup Finals, as they will both play at the WTA Finals. Not only that, but they will also play doubles at the end, meaning that each player will play at least six matches, if not more.
When you put that into perspective, it's not a surprise that they opted out of the Billie Jean King Cup Finals because it's too many matches on two different continents, with no rest in between.
On another note, the US team has a couple of players who can step up in place of them, though it's impossible to replace two Top 10 players.
The US team did well as they named Madison Keys, Sofia Kenin, Danielle Collins, Sloane Stephens, and Taylor Townsend, who all had very good moments during the 2023 season.
That's a good team capable of going all the way, especially with how Keys played at the US Open and the recent surge of Sofia Kenin. Tune in from the 7th to the 12th of November to find out how far they go.
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