Two team tennis tournaments — the men's Laver Cup and the women's Billie Jean King Cup — concluded in London and Shenzhen. Team Europe and the Czech Republic emerged as champions, respectively, with the final days cut short in both cases as the winners were decided early, according to infohub.kz.

In the men's event, after Germany's Alexander Zverev lost to Australia's Alex de Minaur, Europe won four straight matches to capture the trophy for the sixth time.

The Laver Cup format assigned different point values to wins: 1 point for each match on the first day, 2 points on the second day, and 3 points on the third. The first team to reach 13 points won.

The Laver Cup, named after the legendary Australian tennis player Rod Laver (now 88), was held for the ninth time. It featured six European players and an equal number representing the rest of the world.

Kazakhstan's Alexander Bublik, making his tournament debut, lost all of his matches.

The Billie Jean King Cup Finals also featured Kazakh tennis players. Kazakhstan's team (Yulia Putintseva, Sonya Zhiyenbayeva, Anna Danilina, and Zhibek Kulambayeva) lost a dramatic quarterfinal to Spain, then traveled in full force to the Asian Games in Japan.

Spain, in turn, lost its semifinal to the Czech Republic. The string of upsets ended in the final: the Czech Republic, as expected, claimed the main trophy by defeating Ukraine.

Interestingly, world No. 1 doubles player Katerina Siniakova never played in Shenzhen. The Czechs won all their matches with singles players alone.

In the final, Karolina Muchova (8) beat Angelina Kalinina (47) 6-2, 6-3, while Linda Noskova (6) defeated Elina Svitolina (7) 6-3, 7-6 (7-5). The doubles match was not needed.

BILLIE JEAN KING CUP 2026 (September 23–27, Shenzhen, hard)

Quarterfinals: CZECH REPUBLIC — GREAT BRITAIN 2-0, SPAIN — KAZAKHSTAN 2-1, ITALY — CHINA 2-1, UKRAINE — BELGIUM 2-1.

Semifinals: CZECH REPUBLIC — SPAIN 2-0, UKRAINE — ITALY 2-0.

Final: CZECH REPUBLIC — UKRAINE 2-0.

The Czech Republic won the Billie Jean King Cup for the 11th time. Only the United States has won the team world championship more often (18 times).