Staff Canada is working it again with 4 members of the 2023 Billie Jean King Cup-winning squad as Canada seems to be to turn into the seventh totally different nation to go back-to-back on the World Cup of Ladies’s Tennis.
Leylah Annie Fernandez, Rebecca Marino, Gabriela Dabrowski, and Marina Stakusic will all be again in Southern Spain, this time a few hours east in Malaga as they try and defend the title they gained a 12 months in the past, Canada’s first on the Billie Jean King Cup.
Because of their title, that is the primary time the Canadian ladies can be suiting up in Billie Jean King Cup play since their victory in Seville because the champions get to skip the qualifying spherical. With the 2024 Finals proper across the nook, let’s reintroduce the ladies of Staff Canada.
Leylah Annie Fernandez
Rank: 31
Billie Jean King Cup Look: tenth
Billie Jean King Cup File: 16-3
2024 File: 29-23
Fernandez had a Billie Jean King Cup marketing campaign for the ages in 2023, taking part in virtually each match she might and profitable all of them.
In qualifying, she put the staff on her again, profitable each her singles matches and the decisive doubles with Dabrowski to defeat Belgium 3-2 and clinch a spot within the Finals. Then in Seville, the Lavalloise gained all 4 of her singles matches, together with the title-clinching level over Jasmine Paolini of Italy within the ultimate, in addition to scoring an important upset victory within the semifinal doubles in opposition to Czechia.
Total, Fernandez was 8-0 in Billie Jean King Cup play in 2023. She solely misplaced two units in these eight matches. The one matches she might have performed however didn’t throughout the marketing campaign have been the 2 doubles rubbers within the Finals Group Stage, when Canada already had 2-0 leads. Going again to April 2021, the Canadian No. 1 is 15-1, together with her lone loss coming by the hands of Belinda Bencic and the eventual champion Swiss within the 2022 Finals group stage.
Put merely, Fernandez brings her greatest to Staff Canada.
She may even be arriving in Malaga sizzling on the heels of certainly one of her greatest stretches of 2024. Fernandez has gained at the least two matches in every of her final three occasions, together with a quarter-final in Tokyo and a semifinal in Hong Kong. In each of these occasions, she misplaced to the highest seed and eventual champion (world No. 7 Qinwen Zheng in Tokyo, who additionally beat Fernandez within the third spherical of Wuhan on her strategy to the ultimate, and No. 16 Diana Shnaider in Hong Kong).
Rebecca Marino
Rank: 115
Billie Jean King Cup Look: thirteenth
Billie Jean King Cup File: 7-9
2024 File: 53-24
Whereas Rebecca Marino has spent extra time on the ITF Tour than the WTA Tour in 2024, she has been a drive to be reckoned with, scoring the three largest singles titles of her profession. The Canadian veteran gained a pair of W100s in Guanajuato and Ilkley early within the season after which final month was victorious on residence soil in Calgary on the W75 occasion.
Previous to 2024, Marino’s greatest outcome was a few W60 wins. Her three singles titles in 2024 are her most in a season since she gained 5 ITF titles in 2018, though the most important of these was a W25.
Marino has been part of each Canadian staff within the Billie Jean King Cup since 2021 and has solely missed one tie for the reason that starting of 2019. She is arriving in Malaga with some good latest type, together with her title run in Calgary and a powerful exhibiting on the WTA 125 occasion in Tampico, Mexico, the place she gained the doubles title and reached the singles semifinals.
Gabriela Dabrowski
Rank: 5 (doubles)
Billie Jean King Cup Look: twenty first
Billie Jean King Cup File: 15-12
2024 File: 34-14
Dabrowski is essentially the most adorned Canadian feminine tennis participant in historical past and in 2024, she continued so as to add to her spectacular resume.
The Ottawan nabbed a title in June, her sixteenth on the WTA Tour, reached one other main ultimate at Wimbledon, and ascended to a career-high rating of No. 3 in doubles in July. She additionally grew to become the primary Canadian lady to win an Olympic medal in tennis, claiming bronze with Félix Auger-Aliassime in combined doubles on the Paris Olympics.
Her final occasion earlier than the Billie Jean King Cup Finals is/was the WTA Finals, the place she and Erin Routliffe certified because the second seeds. They went 3-0 within the group stage to qualify for the semifinals.
Learn additionally: Watch Staff Canada in motion on the Billie Jean King Cup Finals on CBC Sports activities digital platforms and TVA Sports activities
Like Fernandez, Dabrowski arrives in Malaga on a powerful profitable streak in Billie Jean King Cup play. She has gained her final seven matches in a row, together with her final defeat coming greater than three years in the past within the 2021 group stage. Twice throughout the 2023 championship run she got here via with a win within the deciding doubles match: within the qualifiers in opposition to Belgium and within the semifinals in opposition to Czechia, each occasions partnering with Fernandez.
Marina Stakusic
Rank: 128
Billie Jean King Cup Look: 2nd
Billie Jean King Cup File: 3-1
2024 File: 30-23
Stakusic was the surprising breakout star of the 2023 Billie Jean King Cup Finals. Captain Heidi El Tabakh took a bet in beginning the then-18-year-old in Canada’s opening tie in opposition to Spain and Stakusic rapidly justified the captain’s selection, simply defeating Spain’s Rebeka Masarova to kick off the Finals on a excessive observe.
That victory propelled Stakusic into the highlight and he or she continued to shine, going 3-1 total in Seville with all three of her wins coming in opposition to higher-ranked and extra skilled opponents, together with a victory within the ultimate over former Roland-Garros semifinalist Martina Trevisan which arrange Fernandez’s title-clinching victory.
All through 2024, Stakusic has made progress in her improvement. She gained her first WTA 1000-level match in Toronto on the Nationwide Financial institution Open, certified for her first Grand Slam at Wimbledon, and reached her first tour-level quarter-final at a 500 occasion in Guadalajara in September.
Learn additionally: Bianca Andreescu Withdraws from Billie Jean King Cup Finals
Like 2023, the teenager will arrive on the Billie Jean King Cup Finals in good type. She lately gained the most important title of her profession, her first WTA 125 crown in Tampico, Mexico.
Canada has a first-round bye. They are going to begin with their quarter-final on Sunday, Nov. 17 in opposition to both Nice Britain or Germany.
Viewers can watch Staff Canada’s Billie Jean King Cup Finals and Davis Cup Remaining 8 ties without cost on CBC Gem, cbcsports.ca, the CBC Sports activities app, and CBC Sports activities’ official YouTube channel. The ties may even be obtainable in French, as TVA Sports activities and TVA Sports activities Direct can be exhibiting Canada’s matchups, in addition to all semifinals and finals.
