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SEVILLE, Spain — Canada has reached the ultimate of the Billie Jean King Cup for the primary time.
Laval’s Leylah Fernandez and Gabriela Dabrowski upset Czechia’s Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova in a second-set tiebreaker 7-5, 7-6 (3) on Saturday as Canada superior with a 2-1 total victory within the semifinal of the ladies’s worldwide crew tennis event.
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Fernandez gave Canada hope with a singles win towards Marketa Vondrousova, 6-2, 2-6, 6-3, earlier within the day.
Fernandez and Dabrowski then took down among the finest doubles groups on the earth within the finale in Seville.
Canada will meet Italy within the 12-country remaining on Sunday.
Dabrowski, a 31-year-old from Ottawa, gained the U.S. Open girls’s doubles championship two months in the past.
Krejcikova, the 2021 French Open champion, has paired with Siniakova to win seven main doubles titles, together with this yr’s Australian Open.
Canada gained the opening set of the decisive doubles match. The groups stayed on serve till Canada broke their opponents to take a 6-5 benefit after which closed the take care of a win on serve.
The groups traded breaks late within the second set, after which Canada persevered within the tiebreaker with Fernandez serving to ship her crew into the ultimate.
Canada’s Marina Stakusic opened the semifinal with a 2-6, 1-6 loss to Krejcikova. However Fernandez saved Canada’s hopes alive along with her win over Vondrousova, the reigning Wimbledon girls’s champion, within the day’s second match.
“I simply performed my recreation and tried to take it to her,” the 21-year-old Fernandez stated after her singles win. “I really like Billie Jean Cup tennis. It’s the World Cup of tennis.”
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Canada superior to the semifinals of the distinguished crew occasion for less than the second time and first since 1988.
Vondrousova, who broke by way of for a Grand Slam win at Wimbledon this summer season, has gained 14 straight matches on the Billie Jean Cup.
The world No. 7 noticed her 26-set win and 13-match win streak snapped on the Billie Jean King Cup by Fernandez.
Fernandez held serve in a prolonged 10-minute opening recreation. She swiftly snatched a 4-0 lead and held on for a 6-2 first-set victory.
The tables had been reversed within the second set. Vondrousova rallied to win the second set, going forward 4-0 to drive a deciding set with a 6-2 second-set victory.
Vondrousova and Fernandez broke one another’s serve to start the deciding set. However the Laval native, ranked No. 35 on the earth, gave Canada a 3-1 lead, profitable her serve within the second recreation and breaking Vondrousova and held on to drive a deciding doubles recreation.
Stakusic’s magical run ended within the opening match towards Czechia. Ranked 258th on the earth, the 18-year-old from Toronto shocked two top-70 gamers in opening wins in Canada’s group-stage victories towards Spain and Poland.
She fell behind the 27-year-old Krejcikova after the Czech broke the Canadian’s opening-match service recreation.
Stakusic fought again to path within the first set 3-2, however the 2021 French Open girls’s champion stormed out to win three straight video games to seize the lead.
World No. 10 Krejcikova was even higher towards her younger opponent, profitable the second set 6-1 to place a degree on the board for Czechia.
Within the first semifinal on Saturday, Jasmine Paolini defeated Tamara Zidansek, and Martina Trevisan downed Kaja Juvan as Italy sealed a 2-0 win towards Slovenia.
The eighth-seeded Italians will search their fifth Billie Jean Cup title, the primary since 2013.
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