Gonzalez named event ambassador for Davis Cup, BJK Cup Junior Finals
Former world No. 5 Fernando Gonzalez has been named as event ambassador for the 2025 Billie Jean King Cup by Gainbridge Junior Finals and Davis Cup Junior Finals, which will be hosted in Santiago, Chile on 3-9 November.
Gonzalez is one of Chilean tennis’s all-time greats – he reached the quarter-finals or better at all four Grand Slam tournaments, including a runner-up finish at the 2007 Australian Open. He also won three Olympic medals – gold in men’s doubles alongside Nicolas Massu at Athens 2004, bronze in men’s singles at Athens 2004 and silver in men’s singles at Beijing 2008. He played 23 Davis Cup ties for Chile between 1998 and 2011, ending his Davis Cup career with a 31-13 overall win-loss record.
Prior to his professional career, Gonzalez was one of the world’s top junior players. He represented Chile at the 1996 Davis Cup Junior Finals (then known as the World Youth Cup), with the team reaching the semi-finals before falling to an Australian team including Lleyton Hewitt. Gonzalez went on to win the boys’ singles title at 1998 Roland Garros and reached a career-high ITF junior ranking of No. 4.
Gonzalez said: “It’s a true honour to serve as ambassador for such an important event as the Billie Jean King Cup Junior and Davis Cup Junior Finals, especially with Chile as the host country. I know what this tournament means for the next generation of players, both in our country and around the world, and I’m fully committed to supporting, inspiring and sharing everything I’ve learned throughout my career.”
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Sergio Elias, President of the Federacion de Tenis Chile, said: “For Chilean tennis, it is a milestone to host the Billie Jean King Cup Junior and Davis Cup Junior Finals in our country. And of course, we are thrilled that Fernando Gonzalez, one of the greatest tennis players in our history, Olympic champion and former world No. 5, is the face and ambassador of the Finals. We want this to be a true celebration of sport, and we are confident that through hard work and dedication, we will place Chile on the highest pedestal as hosts of this global event.”
David Haggerty, ITF President, said: “As a player who excelled when wearing his country’s colours, Fernando is the perfect ambassador for the Billie Jean King Cup Junior and Davis Cup Junior Finals. He understands the pride of representing your nation, and I am sure that he can inspire this generation of junior players to compete with the same spirit. We are delighted to have Fernando as part of our team for the Finals and look forward to working with him in November.”
The Billie Jean King Cup Junior and Davis Cup Junior Finals are the pinnacle of team competition for tennis players aged 16 and under. National teams compete in regional qualifying events throughout the season, before the top 16 boys teams and top 16 girls teams contest the Finals.
As host nation, the Chilean boys’ and girls’ teams qualify for the Finals automatically. The qualifying events for Africa, Asia/Oceania and North/Central America & Caribbean have all taken place, with seven further teams now qualified for the Billie Jean King Cup Junior Finals (Australia, Canada, Chinese Taipei, Japan Kazakhstan, Morocco and USA) and seven further teams qualified for the Davis Cup Junior Finals (Canada, China P.R., Chinese Taipei, Egypt, Japan, Korea Republic and USA).
The qualifying events for Europe and South America will take place in August. The Finals are contested as four round-robin groups of four teams over the first three days of play, followed by a rest day, then the knockout stages over the final three days. USA are the defending champions in both events, with both the American boys’ and girls’ teams having defeated Romania to win the titles in Antalya, Turkiye in 2024.
Previous winning teams have featured players who have gone on to excel at the top of the game including Rafael Nadal (Spain, 2002), Ashleigh Barty (Australia, 2011), Felix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov (Canada, 2015), Iga Swiatek (Poland, 2016), Carlos Alcaraz (Spain, 2018), Coco Gauff (USA, 2018) and Joao Fonseca (Brazil, 2022).
The Finals are returning to South America for the first time in 24 years, with Santiago also having hosted the event in 2001. On that occasion, Chile’s boys’ team won the Davis Cup Junior title, defeating Germany 3-0 in the final – a triumph which remains Chile’s only title-victory in the competition to date. The Chilean team in 2001 was composed of Carlos Rios, Guillermo Hormázabal, and Jorge Aguilar, who is currently assistant coach to Chile’s Davis Cup team under captain Massu.
The 2001 Billie Jean King Cup Junior champions were a Czech team comprising Petra Cetkovska, Lucie Safarova and Barbora Strycova, all three of whom went on to reach the Top 25 of the WTA rankings. The trio also all competed in Billie Jean King Cup for Czechia, with Safarova and Strycova both playing an important role in their nation’s six Billie Jean King Cup title-victories between 2011 and 2018.
Further information on Billie Jean King Cup Juniors and Davis Cup Juniors is available here