{"id":165039,"date":"2025-09-24T01:10:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T01:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/165039\/"},"modified":"2025-09-24T01:10:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T01:10:10","slug":"jessica-pegula-gives-her-opinion-on-lindsay-davenport-as-captain-after-the-usa-lose-in-billie-jean-king-cup-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/165039\/","title":{"rendered":"Jessica Pegula gives her opinion on Lindsay Davenport as captain after the USA lose in Billie Jean King Cup final"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It wasn\u2019t to be for Team USA at the 2025 Billie Jean King Cup Finals, as they missed out on the title once more.<\/p>\n

Taking down Kazakhstan 2-1 and Great Britain 2-0, Lindsay Davenport\u2019s<\/a> side qualified for their first final since 2018.<\/p>\n

Failing in their title bid, Team USA lost to Italy 2-0, with Emma Navarro falling to Elisabetta Cocciaretto and Jessica Pegula coming up short against Jasmine Paolini<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"TeamPhoto by Lintao Zhang\/Getty Images for Billie Jean King Cup<\/p>\n

The defeat was tough to stomach for fans of American tennis, as the nation has now gone eight years without a title at the Billie Jean King Cup<\/a> Finals.<\/p>\n

Reflecting on the loss, star player Pegula<\/a> has now given her honest verdict on Team USA captain Davenport.<\/p>\n

Jessica Pegula says she likes playing for \u2018super direct\u2019 Lindsay Davenport<\/p>\n

During the latest episode of \u2018The Player\u2019s Box Podcast\u2019, Pegula had this to say about her Team USA captain.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like playing for Lindsay [Davenport] because she is so funny but so direct. It\u2019s so funny because she will just be very straightforward, and you just start laughing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven yesterday, she was just very matter-of-fact. \u2018You are not doing this, you need to change this.\u2019 It\u2019s so funny and so matter-of-fact. But she is so nice, it\u2019s just the way that she delivers it makes it really funny. I would rather someone be super direct rather than be like I\u2019m not really sure.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think as a captain, I feel like that is really important for the rest of the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JessicaPhoto by Rich Storry\/Getty Images for ITF<\/p>\n

Pegula praised Davenport for the efforts she\u2019s made in looking after every member of the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cMadi [Keys]<\/a>, you have had a really long relationship with her. I have not had that much [time] with her until she became captain, but I have always appreciated that, I feel she really looks out for each player,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201c[She asks] Are you feeling okay? How are you doing? It\u2019s not just how is your tennis, it\u2019s how are you doing personally.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause she is so honest, she appreciates the honesty back of how are you? How are you really doing?\u201d<\/p>\n

Davenport is clearly well-liked in the Team USA camp, but what is her record like as captain?<\/p>\n

Team USA\u2019s record at the Billie Jean King Cup with Lindsay Davenport<\/p>\n

The three-time Grand Slam champion took on the role in September 2023, replacing Kathy Rinaldi, who had just overseen a Group Stage exit.<\/p>\n

Leading her team to the finals, Davenport began her captaincy with a win over Belgium in April 2024.<\/p>\n

Team USA vs Belgium (2024 Billie Jean King Cup qualifier)MatchWinnerLoserScore1USA (Jessica Pegula)Belgium (Sofia Costoulas)USA (1-0) Belgium2USA (Emma Navarro)Belgium (Hanne Vandewinkel)USA (2-0) Belgium3USA (Jessica Pegula)Belgium (Hanne Vandewinkel)USA (3-0) Belgium4USA (Taylor Townsend\/Caroline Dolehide)Belgium (Kimberly Zimmermann\/Marie Benoit)USA (4-0) BelgiumTeam USA vs Belgium (2024 Billie Jean King Cup qualifier)<\/p>\n

Qualifying for the Billie Jean King Cup Finals in Malaga, Team USA suffered a shock defeat in the round of 16 to big underdogs Slovakia.<\/p>\n

Team USA vs Slovakia (2024 Billie Jean King Cup Finals R16)MatchWinnerLoserScore1USA (Taylor Townsend)Slovakia (Renata Jamrichova)USA (1-0) Slovakia2Slovakia (Rebecca Sramkova)USA (Danielle Collins)USA (1-1) Slovakia3Slovakia (Tereza Mihalikova\/Viktoria Hruncakova)USA (Ashlyn Krueger\/Taylor Townsend)USA (1-2) SlovakiaTeam USA vs Slovakia (2024 Billie Jean King Cup Finals R16)<\/p>\n

Returning to the qualifying stage in 2025, Davenport and co. got their revenge on Slovakia as they booked their place in the finals.<\/p>\n

Team USA vs Denmark (2025 Billie Jean King Cup Finals qualifier)MatchWinnerLoserScore1USA (Hailey Baptiste)Denmark (Rebecca Munk Mortensen)USA (1-0) Denmark2USA (Bernarda Pera)Denmark (Johanne Christine Svendsen)USA (2-0) Denmark3USA (Desirae Krawczyk\/Asia Muhammad)Denmark (Laura Brunkel\/Emilie Francati)USA (3-0) DenmarkTeam USA vs Denmark (2025 Billie Jean King Cup Finals qualifier)Team USA vs Slovakia (2025 Billie Jean King Cup Finals qualifier)MatchWinnerLoserScore1USA (Hailey Baptiste)Slovakia (Renata Jamrichova)USA (1-0) Slovakia2USA (Bernarda Pera)Slovakia (Rebecca Sramkova)USA (2-0) Slovakia3Slovakia (Mia Pohankova\/Tereza Mihalikova)USA (Desirae Krawczyk\/Asia Muhammad)USA (2-1) SlovakiaTeam USA vs Slovakia (2025 Billie Jean King Cup Finals qualifier)<\/p>\n

Davenport then led her team to the finals in Shenzhen, where they fell to Italy, 2-0.<\/p>\n

Team USA vs Kazakhstan (2025 Billie Jean King Cup Finals QF)MatchWinnerLoserScore1USA (Emma Navarro)Kazakhstan (Yulia Putintseva)USA (1-0) Kazakhstan2Kazakhstan (Elena Rybakina)USA (Jessica Pegula)USA (1-1) Kazakhstan3USA (Jessica Pegula\/Taylor Townsend)Kazakhstan (Elena Rybakina\/Yulia Putintseva)USA (2-0) KazakhstanTeam USA vs Kazakhstan (2025 Billie Jean King Cup Finals QF)Team USA vs Great Britain (2025 Billie Jean King Cup Finals SF)MatchWinnerLoserScore1USA (Emma Navarro)Great Britain (Sonay Kartal)USA (1-0) Great Britain2USA (Jessica Pegula)Great Britain (Katie Boulter)USA (2-0) Great BritainTeam USA vs Great Britain (2025 Billie Jean King Cup Finals SF)Team USA vs Italy (2025 Billie Jean King Cup Finals F)MatchWinnerLoserScore1Italy (Elisabetta Cocciaretto)USA (Emma Navarro)USA (0-1) Italy2Italy (Jasmine Paolini)USA (Jessica Pegula)USA (0-2) ItalyTeam USA vs Italy (2025 Billie Jean King Cup Finals F)<\/p>\n

Missing out on the title in 2025, Davenport will be hoping to go one better and pick up her first Billie Jean King Cup title as captain in 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It wasn\u2019t to be for Team USA at the 2025 Billie Jean King Cup Finals, as they missed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":165040,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[79730,49,48,35058,41742,82,593,4306],"class_list":{"0":"post-165039","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-billie-jean-king-cup","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-jessica-pegula","12":"tag-lindsay-davenport","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-tennis","15":"tag-wta"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}