The Tribune

THE Bahamas Lawn Tennis Association (BLTA) has fielded a four-member team to represent the Bahamas at the Americas Group II 2022 Billie Jean King (BJK) Cup by BNP Paribus, July 22-30.

The team consists of player/captain Simone Pratt, Sydney Clarke, Elana Mackey and Sierra Rodgers.

Clarke and Mackey qualified at the 2021 Giorgio Baldacci Open Nationals in December at the National Tennis Center, while Pratt and Rodgers earned their spots at the 2022 BJK Invitational held in May.

Both BLTA events were pre-qualifiers for the 2022 Bahamas Billie Jean King Cup.

There are 18 nations set to compete at the Centro Nacional De Tenis Parque Del Este in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

These nations include Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican, Republic, El Salvador, Honduras, Jamaica, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay, US Virgin Islands and Venezuela.

The countries will play in a round-robin format on the hard court surface in four pools. The winners of each pool will compete in two promotional playoffs and the two winners will advance to Americas Group I.

All other teams will play for positional placement, no teams will be relegated.

Clarke, Pratt and Mackey have competed on the Fed Cup team before, but this will be the first appearance for 16-year-old Rodgers.