Remember when Canada won the Davis Cup? Now it looks to add the women's version
Tennis team is 2 wins away from capturing its first Billie Jean King Cup
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Last November, Felix Auger-Aliassime led Canada to its first Davis Cup title in the long history of the premier team event in men's tennis. Now, Canada is two steps away from winning the women's equivalent.
With yesterday's victory over Poland, Canada completed a clean sweep of Group C at the 12-team Billie Jean King Cup Finals in Spain and advanced to the final four for the first time since 1988 (when the event was known as the Federation Cup). Canada's opponent on Saturday at 10 a.m. ET will be the Czech Republic, which defeated the United States today to win Group A.
If Canada reaches the championship final for the first time ever, it will face Italy or Slovenia, who square off in the other semifinal on Saturday at 4 a.m. ET. The final goes Sunday at 9 a.m. ET. Every contest is being streamed live on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports app and CBC Gem.
Each matchup (or "tie" as they're called) is a best of three, consisting of a pair of singles matches and a doubles. In the group stage, all three legs are played, regardless of the outcome of the first two. Canada went a combined 6-0 in its three-team group against host Spain and Poland while dropping only one of the 13 sets.
Leylah Fernandez, Canada's highest-ranked singles player at No. 35, has been flawless so far, beating 50th-ranked Sara Sorribes Tormo of Spain and No. 24 Magda Linette of Poland in straight sets. The doubles tandem of Gabriela Dabrowski and Genie Bouchard also went perfect in its two matches.
WATCH | Canada shuts out Poland to remain undefeated at BJK Cup:
But the story of the tournament is the breakout performance by 18-year-old Canadian Marina Stakusic, a virtually unknown BJK Cup rookie who is ranked 258th in the world and has never played a main-draw match on the WTA Tour.
For Canada's opening singles match against host Spain on Wednesday, team captain Heidi El Tabakh made the bold decision to play Stakusic over the more experienced Rebecca Marino (ranked 176th) and Bouchard (273rd). The teenager met the moment, demolishing 65th-ranked Rebeka Masarova 6-3, 6-1 to kickstart her team to victory. Stakusic then upset 63rd-ranked Magdalena Frech 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 yesterday to spark the win over Poland that sent Canada to the semifinals for the first time in 35 years. Read more about Stakusic and her out-of-nowhere performance here.
So, what are Canada's chances of reaching the final for the first time — and maybe even winning it?
Stakusic's unexpected emergence has certainly boosted the odds. Canada now has two strong singles players, and Dabrowski is an elite doubles specialist. She's eighth in the world rankings after winning the U.S. Open women's doubles title this summer with her New Zealander teammate Erin Routliffe. Dabrowski seems to be mixing well with Bouchard at the BJK Cup, judging by their results so far. And she could be partnered with a better player in Fernandez, who's ranked 20th in the world in doubles but was rested for both of Canada's group-stage matches after her clinching singles wins.
WATCH | Fernandez's victory send Canada to BJK Cup semis:
The obvious knock on the Canadian squad is that it lacks a true singles star. But that's the case with many teams. In Canada's group, Poland was without world No. 1 Iga Swiatek. Spain had its two best players, but neither Tormo nor Masarova are ranked inside the top 50.
Canada's semifinal opponent will be tougher. Despite missing eighth-ranked Karolina Muchova, the Czechs still feature two high-end singles players in No. 7 Marketa Vondrousova and No. 10 Barbora Krejcikova. Plus, they have an ace in the hole with the doubles pairing of Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova, who have captured seven Grand Slam titles together, including this year's Australian Open. Krejcikova and Siniakova won the deciding doubles match today against the United States after the teams split their singles contests.
Looking (perhaps too far) ahead to Canada's potential opponents for the final, both Italy and Slovenia have their top two singles players, though none of them are stars. For the Italians that's 30th-ranked Jasmine Paolini and No. 43 Martina Trevisan. For the Slovenians, No. 100 Tamara Zidanšek and No. 104 Kaja Juvan.
