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The quarterfinal stage of the Billie Jean King Cup Finals 2025 will wrap up with the showdown between teams Great Britain and Japan on Day 3 (Thursday, September 18). Both teams are without their star players, Emma Raducanu for the Brits and Naomi Osaka for the Japanese.
However, thanks to their bench strength, they still have enough top players to spearhead their respective campaigns. This will be the fourth meeting between the two teams, with Great Britain leading Japan 2-1 in the head-to-head. Japan won their most recent tie in 2018, beating the Brits 3-2 in the World Group II. Great Britain won their previous two contests in 1985 and 1972.
Defending champions Italy were the first team to qualify for the semifinals on Tuesday, staging a comeback in both of their singles matches to beat China. Either Spain or Ukraine will join Italy in the last four on Wednesday.
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The tie between the United States and Kazakhstan will decide another semifinalist. For now, let's turn our attention to the tie between Great Britain and Japan, their squad members and the predictions for their quarterfinal showdown at the Billie Jean King Cup Finals 2025:
Billie Jean King Cup Finals 2025: Team Nominations
Team Great Britain: Katie Boulter, Francesca Jones, Sonay Kartal, and Jodie Burrage.
Team Japan: Moyuka Uchijima, Ena Shibahara, Nao Hibino, Eri Hozumi, and Shuko Aoyama.
#1. Katie Boulter vs Moyuka Uchijima
Boulter has a 12-16 record this season. She has won back-to-back matches just twice this year, when she made the quarterfinals of the United Cup in January and the last eight of the Nottingham Open in June. She has lost six of her last seven matches, and recently crashed out in the first round of the US Open.
Uchijima advanced to her maiden WTA 1000 quarterfinal at this year's Madrid Open. She did so by beating a top 10 player for the first time in her career, ousting World No. 3 Jessica Pegula in the third round. She also beat top 30 players Ons Jabeur and Ekaterina Alexandrova before losing to Elina Svitolina.
Unfortunately, Uchijima's form fell off a cliff following her career-best result. She lost in the first round of her next nine tournaments, and ultimately snapped her losing skid by beating Olga Danilovic in the first round of the US Open. She then lost to Barbora Krejcikova in the next round.
Since the start of July, both players have a combined two wins between them. With both of them being in a slump, this is a good opportunity for them to score a much-needed win. Boulter has lost fewer matches than Uchijima recently, thus making her the slight favorite to win their first career meeting.
Predicted winner: Katie Boulter
#2. Ena Shibahara vs Francesca Jones
Jones advanced to her second semifinal at the WTA level at last week's SP Open. She reached a new career-high of No. 73 in the rankings as a result. She claimed her first couple of Challenger titles in July as well. She has a 45-16 record across all levels this year, including qualifying.
Shibahara's best result at the WTA level has been a quarterfinal showing at the ATX Open in Austin. It was her first quarterfinal on the main tour as well. Other than that, she made a couple of finals at the ITF level, losing both of them. She has an overall record of 25-22 this year.
Jones and Shibahara have crossed paths twice before, although this will be the biggest match between them. The former won their most recent meeting in the final of the ITF event in Prague, while the latter won their first duel in the qualifying rounds of the US Open 2024. Jones is clearly the in-form player in this match-up, and will be expected to seal this tie in her country's favor.
Predicted winner: Francesca Jones
#3. Jodie Burrage/Sonay Kartal vs Shuko Aoyama/Eri Hozumi
Burrage and Kartal have played together a few times this year, compiling a 3-5 record as a pair. Aoyama and Hozumi tasted a decent level of success towards the end of last year, winning one title from three finals. However, they couldn't sustain the same success this year. They have a 5-8 record this year and split after losing four consecutive matches.
Aoyama and Hozumi will still be the favorites to win considering their status as doubles specialists on the tour. The former has peaked at No. 4 in doubles and has won 20 titles, while the latter has six titles and was the runner-up at the French Open 2018.
Burrage has bagged one doubles title on the WTA Tour, although neither her nor Kartal have cracked the top 100 of the doubles rankings. If the tie between the two countries does come down to doubles, then the Japanese duo will be favored to come out on top.
Predicted winners: Shuko Aoyama and Eri Hozumi
