Four members of the 2023 Billie Jean King Cup champion team will return to Team Canada and attempt to be the seventh to triumph in back-to-back years at the Women’s Tennis World Cup.
Leylah Annie Fernandez, Rebecca Marino, Gabriela Dabrowski and Marina Stakusic will once again travel to Spain, this time a little further east, to Malaga, to try to defend the title they won last year.
Having triumphed in 2023, the Canadians will take part in the Billie Jean King Cup for the first time this year, advancing directly to the draw without going through qualifying. What’s more, as champions, the Canadians have a first-round bye and will enter action in the quarterfinals. As the 2024 Finals approach, let’s reconnect with the members of Team Canada.
Leylah Annie Fernandez
- Ranking: 31e
- Participation in the Billie Jean King Cup: 10e
- Billie Jean King Cup record: 16-3
- Record in 2024: 29-23
In 2023, Fernandez shone brightly at the Billie Jean King Cup. She played every match she could and won them all.
During the qualifications, she carried the team on her shoulders and won her two singles duels and the decisive doubles match with Dabrowski to defeat Belgium 3 to 2 and thus reach the Finals. Then, in Seville, the Laval resident won her four singles matches, including the decisive point against the Italian Jasmine Paolini in the final, as well as the important doubles victory in the semi-final against the Czech Republic.
In 2023, Fernandez has accumulated a perfect record of eight wins at the Billie Jean King Cup and has only lost two rounds along the way. The only matches in which she did not take part were the two doubles duels in the round robin of the Finals, when Canada was already leading 2 to 0. Since April 2021, the Canadian number one has a record of 15 wins and 1 loss, Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic being the only one to have beaten her in the 2022 round robin.
We can therefore say that Fernandez always gives the best of herself for Team Canada.
She will also appear in Malaga just after having experienced one of her very good periods in 2024. Indeed, Fernandez has won at least two matches in each of her last three, notably reaching the quarter-finals in Tokyo and the semi-final in Hong Kong. In each case, she fell against the favorite and future finalist (the 7e world Qinwen Zheng in Tokyo, who also beat Fernandez in the third round in Wuhan en route to the final, and the 16e world Diana Shnaider in Hong Kong).
Rebecca Marino
- Ranking: 115e
- Participation in the Billie Jean King Cup: 13e
- Billie Jean King Cup record: 7-9
- Record in 2024: 53-24
Although Rebecca Marino spent more time on the ITF Tour than the WTA Tour in 2024, she stood out by winning the three most important singles titles of her career. Indeed, she was crowned champion in Guanajuato and Ilkley at the start of the season in the W100 category events, then she won at home last month in Calgary, during the W75 category tournament.
Before 2024, Marino’s best result had been triumphs in two ITF W60 tournaments. She is thus experiencing her best season since collecting five ITF trophies in 2018, although the most important of them was a W25.
Marino has been part of every Canadian Billie Jean King Cup team since 2021 and has only missed one game since the start of 2019. She will arrive in Malaga on the strength of her title win in Calgary and her excellent performance at the WTA 125 tournament in Tampico, Mexico, where she captured the doubles crown and was a singles semi-finalist.
Gabriela Dabrowski
- Ranking: 5e (double)
- Participation in the Billie Jean King Cup: 21st
- Billie Jean King Cup record: 15-12
- Record in 2024: 34-14
Dabrowski is the most successful player in Canadian tennis history, and in 2024 she has continued to improve her impressive record.
In June, the Ottawan harvested its 16e WTA trophy, then she reached the final at Wimbledon and rose to 3edoubles rank in July. She also became the first Canadian to win an Olympic medal in tennis when she won bronze in the mixed doubles at the Paris Olympics with Félix Auger-Aliassime.
Her last tournament before the Billie Jean King Cup Finals is the WTA Finals, where she forms the second best team with Erin Routliffe. They qualified for the semi-final thanks to a perfect record of three victories in the round robin.
Read also: Follow Team Canada’s matches at the Billie Jean King Cup Finals on TVA Sports and on CBC Sports digital platforms
Like Fernandez, Dabrowski arrives in Malaga on an impressive Billie Jean King Cup winning streak. She has won her last seven matches, her last defeat dating back to the 2021 round-robin tournament. During the 2023 Finals, she won twice by winning the decisive doubles: in the quarter-final against Belgium and in the semi-finals. -final against Czechia, both times with Fernandez.
Marina Stakusic
- Ranking: 128e
- Participation in the Billie Jean King Cup: 2e
- Record at the Billie Jean King Cup: 3-1
- Record in 2024: 30-23
Stakusic was the surprise star of the 2023 Billie Jean King Cup Finals. Captain Heidi El Tabakh played big by sending the 18-year-old to the frontline in Canada’s first round-robin match against Spain. However, Stakusic quickly proved her captain right by easily disposing of Rebeka Masarova.
The victory propelled Stakusic into the spotlight and she continued to shine with three wins and one loss in Seville, winning each time against higher-ranked and more seasoned rivals, including against former halfback Martina Trevisan. -finalist of Roland-Garros.
Stakusic has progressed a lot in 2024: she won her first match in a WTA 1000 category tournament at the National Bank Open in Toronto, she qualified for her first Grand Slam event at Wimbledon and reached her first WTA quarter-final in Guadalajara in September.
Also read: Bianca Andreescu will not participate in the Billie Jean King Cup finals
Just like in 2023, the teenager will arrive at the Billie Jean King Cup Finals in great shape. She recently won the most important title of her career at the WTA 125 tournament in Tampico, Mexico.
Canada has a first-round bye. He will begin the defense of his title in the quarter-final, on Sunday November 17, against Great Britain or Germany.
Fans can follow Canadian Billie Jean King Cup teams for free on CBC Gem, cbcsports.ca, the CBC Sports app and the official CBC Sports YouTube channel. The matches will also be broadcast in French by TVA Sports and broadcast continuously by TVA Sports Direct, which will also present the semi-finals and finals.
