The history of Fed Cup has an interesting tale. The credit for having this top-class tournament, where a majority of world’s best women tennis stars play for the honor of their countries, is shared by Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman, Nell Hopman and by Mary Hardwick Hare.

The idea to have a women’s tennis tournament was of Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman. She had conceptualized this in 1919, but the idea didn’t materialize. When her idea to have women’s tennis championship was rejected, she presented a trophy called the “Wightman Cup” for the match between the United States of America and the Great Britain. That match was an annual feature between these two countries, which were great teams of that era.

The first Fed Cup (earlier know as Federation Cup) was finally played in 1963—the year International Tennis Federation (ITF) celebrated its 50th anniversary. Such was the excitement and enthusiasm of players that despite the lack of sponsors for the tournament they bore the expenses themselves.

Most of the big names of women tennis like Billie Jean King, Margaret Court, Chris Evert, Virginia Wade were part of the of the inaugural tournament that took place in Queen's Club in London.

The tournament was destined to be a grand success. That was evident right from the final of the inaugural Fed Cup (earlier known as Federation Cup) when the top two players of that era—Billie Jean King of the US and Margaret Court of Australia clashed in the final.

The match was played on the grass court and Billie Jean King of US defeated Margaret.

Now decades later, the success of this tournament can be gauged from the fact almost all the star women tennis players like Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf, Anastasia Myskina, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Justine Henin-Hardenne, Kim Clijsters, Amélie Mauresmo, Serena and Venus Williams have graced the court for playing for their countries.