Japan, Australia and Slovakia advance to the Billie Jean King Cup Finals

LONDON (AP) — Japan, Australia and Slovakia all advanced to the Billie Jean King Cup Finals by clinching victories in the best-of-five-match qualifying round on Saturday.

Japan took an insurmountable 3-0 lead against Kazakhstan without needing four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka to play a second match on an indoor hard court in Tokyo. That's because Nao Hibino beat Kazakhstan's Yulia Putintseva 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (7) on Saturday, after Osaka's win against Putintseva on Friday helped the hosts go up 2-0.

Slovakia moved into the Finals when 16-year-old Renata Jamrichova defeated Veronika Erjavec 6-2, 6-0 on an indoor hard court in Bratislava to give the hosts a 3-0 edge over visiting Slovenia.

Australia went up 3-0 over Mexico on an outdoor hard court in Brisbane thanks to Taylah Preston's 6-1, 6-1 victory over Marcela Zacarias.

The eight winners in qualifying will join defending champion Canada, 2023 runner-up Italy, host Spain and wild-card selection Czech Republic in the 12-country Finals field in Seville in November.

Heading into Saturday, No. 1-ranked Iga Swiatek and Poland led Switzerland 2-0, 2021 U.S. Open champion Emma Raducanu and Britain were tied 1-1 with France, the United States led Belgium 2-0, Ukraine led Romania 2-0, and Germany was ahead of Brazil 2-0.