Canada puts its Billie Jean King Cup title on the line this week
Fernandez, Dabrowski and company look to repeat last year's surprise
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Canada is once again in the hunt for the two biggest titles in international team tennis as the women's Billie Jean King Cup Finals get underway this week in Malaga, Spain, followed by the men's Davis Cup Finals next week at the same indoor venue.
We'll have more on the Davis Cup before next Wednesday's quarterfinal between Canada and Germany. For today, let's focus on the Billie Jean King Cup.
For those who need a refresher, this event launched in 1963 as the Federation Cup, which was shortened to the Fed Cup before another rebranding in 2020 to honour King, the former women's tennis star and longtime equal-rights champion. Last year, Canada surprised everyone by winning the Cup for the first time.
Like the Davis Cup, which has been around since 1900, the Billie Jean King Cup bills itself as "the World Cup of tennis." A set of playoff matchups late last year determined the 16 teams for the qualifying round in April, and the winners of those eight matchups advanced to this week's 12-team Finals. They're joined by defending champion Canada, runner-up Italy, host Spain and the wild card Czech Republic, who all got to skip qualifying.
Canada, Italy and the Czechs also received first-round byes in the Finals, along with Australia. Canada's quarterfinal matchup will take place Sunday against the winner of Friday's contest between Germany and Great Britain. Italy will face Japan or Romania while Australia meets Slovakia or the United States and the Czechs get Spain or Poland. Those two teams were scheduled to open the Finals today, but the matchup was postponed due to a severe weather alert in the area.
WATCH | Stakusic helps Canada win 2023 BJK Cup:
Each contest (or "tie" as they're called) is a best of three, consisting of a pair of singles matches followed by a doubles decider if necessary. A non-playing captain selects who to send out for each match. Anyone can play doubles, even if they played in one of the singles matches earlier in the tie.
Canada is defending the Cup with mostly the same roster that won it last year in Seville, Spain. Captain Heidi El Tabakh returns along with singles ace Leylah Fernandez, doubles star Gabriela Dabrowski, surprising 19-year-old Marina Stakusic and veteran Rebecca Marino. Bianca Andreescu was initially named to the team in place of Genie Bouchard, but Andreescu pulled out last week for health reasons, so El Tabakh will roll with just those other four.
Fernandez, currently ranked 31st in the world, was sensational at last year's Finals, where teams needed to win their three-team group to advance to the final four. After winning both of her group singles matches, she shocked Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova to force a deciding doubles contest in the semifinals against the Czech Republic. Fernandez and Dabrowski took down seven-time Grand Slam doubles champs Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova to send Canada to the final, where Fernandez clinched the Cup with her straight-sets singles win over Italy's Jasmine Paolini, who would go on to reach two Grand Slam finals this year.
Stakusic, meanwhile, was a revelation. Despite having never played in the main draw of a WTA Tour event (or being legally allowed to drink in her home province of Ontario) the 258th-ranked BJK Cup rookie won three of her four singles matches at the Finals. That included an upset of No. 43 Martina Trevisan to lead off Canada's Cup-winning sweep of Italy in the final. Stakusic is now ranked 127th (and can legally enjoy a beer) after qualifying for Wimbledon this year and winning a lower-tier tournament in Mexico last month.
Dabrowski is wrapping up a fantastic year. At the Paris Olympics, she teamed with Felix Auger-Aliassime to win a bronze medal in mixed doubles for Canada. On the pro tour, Dabrowski and her regular doubles teammate Erin Routliffe of New Zealand reached the final at Wimbledon and two other tournaments before winning the lucrative WTA Finals in Saudi Arabia last weekend. Dabrowski and Routliffe split a cool $1.125 million US there, and Dabrowski is now ranked No. 3 in the world in doubles.
Marino scored a trophy last weekend too, winning the lower-level Dow Tennis Classic in Michigan. She's ranked 103rd in the world in singles.
How to watch the BJK Cup Finals:
You can stream every match in the tournament live on CBC Gem, CBCSports.ca and the CBC Sports app. A pair of first-round matchups are on tap for Thursday: Japan vs. Romania at 4 a.m. ET and Slovakia vs. the United States at 11 a.m. ET. Germany and Great Britain wrap up the first round Friday at 11 a.m. ET, following the rescheduled Spain-Poland contest at 4 a.m. ET.
The quarterfinals begin Saturday, and Canada is slated to face the Germany-Great Britain winner on Sunday at 11 a.m. ET. The semifinals are on Monday and Tuesday, and the final is next Wednesday.
Here's our full streaming schedule and here's the full bracket and results. You can read more about the Canadian team here.
