There will be no Williams Sisters playing doubles for USA’s Billie Jean King Cup team but instead another doubles duo of local pedigree rather than Serena and Venus.
Doubles specialist, Taylor Townsend, who trained in Boca Raton as a teenager and has a diploma from Boca High, will be part of a vaunted doubles team. Townsend, whose mother, Shelia, is Boca Raton High’s tennis coach, is ranked No 2 in the world in doubles. She is returning from a recent emergency appendectomy.
Townsend, the lefty powerhouse, will be joined by veteran Nicole Milichar Martinez, who lives in Stuart and has a No. 9 doubles ranking.
The USTA has announced the rest of its five-member USA team
that will compete at the Delray Beach Tennis Center on Nov. 21-22 against Hungary in a Billie Jean King Cup qualifier. The Palm Beach Post reported earlier this month local star, Delray Beach’s Coco Gauff, was the first to commit.
Joining Coco as singles players will be 2025 Australian Open champion Madison Keys, who is based in Orlando and ranked 21st. The other singles player is No. 25 Ann Li, of Philadelphia, but she may not see action, pending the score.
November’s winner advances into the 2027 tournament, which is the counterpart to the men’s Davis Cup. USA needed to play this qualifier because it failed to be one of the eight countries to qualify for the 2026 final last month.
"I'm very excited for this group of ladies we have set to compete for us in Delray Beach,’’ USA’s BJK Cup captain Lindsay Davenport said. “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.“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,’’ Davenport added. “That tells you how motivated our players are to get the USA back into title contention, and certainly Coco always wants win on her home turf.’’
The two noticeable absences are the highest-ranked American, Jessica Pegula, who lives down the road in Boca Raton and is ranked No. 4, and Amanda Ansimova.
Ansimova’s ranking has slipped to 18th but she made two Grand Slam finals in 2025. Ansimova, a New Jersey product, lives in Adventura. Presumably, the two are weary from the long season.
“There are such great fans in Delray that have shown up in a big way for the USA before, and we very much want that home-court advantage again,’’ Davenport said. “Hungary will be bringing a team with experience and talent, and they'll be ready to compete. So we'll be looking forward to having all of that support behind us for an exciting weekend next month."
Hungarian team led by Ana Bondar
The Hungarian team has nominated world singles No. 75 Ana Bondar, No. 153 Dalma Galfi and No. 445 Amarissa Toth. The doubles team is Fanny Stollar, ranked 60th in doubles, and doubles No. 187 Adrienn Nagy.
During the summer, Davenport said she hadn’t ruled out the Williams sisters after Serena came out of retirement to play singles at Wimbledon and then U.S. Open doubles with Venus. Serena lives in Jupiter and Venus in Palm Beach Gardens.
Coco still is the main draw despite not winning a major in 2026. Gauff, a two-time Grand Slam champion currently ranked fifth, is coming off a controversy in which she revealed being a target of online racist taunts at the China Open after beating Chinese favorite, Sun Xinran.
Gauff, 22, subsequently withdrew from the Wujan Open, the last major WTA event of the year.
USA-Hungary is a best-of-five match played over two days. The weekend ticket packages are on sale via Ticketmaster.com for $50. Single-day tickets for Saturday or Sunday are $35. The doubles match is on Sunday’s card. Matches will start at 1:30 p.m. both days.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Serena, Venus Williams not competing for USA in Billie Jean King Cup
