Fernandez, Dabrowski, Stakusic, Marino Back to Defend Billie Jean King Cup Title: Meet Team Canada

Photo : Martin Sidorjak

Team Canada is running it back with four members of the 2023 Billie Jean King Cup-winning squad as Canada looks to become the seventh different country to go back-to-back at the World Cup of Women’s Tennis.

Leylah Annie Fernandez, Rebecca Marino, Gabriela Dabrowski, and Marina Stakusic will all be back in Southern Spain, this time a couple of hours east in Malaga as they attempt to defend the title they won a year ago, Canada’s first at the Billie Jean King Cup.

As a result of their title, this is the first time the Canadian women will be suiting up in Billie Jean King Cup play since their victory in Seville as the champions get to skip the qualifying round. With the 2024 Finals right around the corner, let’s reintroduce the women of Team Canada.

Leylah Annie Fernandez

Rank: 31
Billie Jean King Cup Appearance: 10^th
Billie Jean King Cup Record: 16-3
2024 Record: 29-23

Fernandez had a Billie Jean King Cup campaign for the ages in 2023, playing practically every match she could and winning all of them.

In qualifying, she put the team on her back, winning both her singles matches and the decisive doubles with Dabrowski to defeat Belgium 3-2 and clinch a spot in the Finals. Then in Seville, the Lavalloise won all four of her singles matches, including the title-clinching point over Jasmine Paolini of Italy in the final, as well as scoring a crucial upset victory in the semifinal doubles against Czechia.

Overall, Fernandez was 8-0 in Billie Jean King Cup play in 2023. She only lost two sets in those eight matches. The only matches she could have played but didn’t during the campaign were the two doubles rubbers in the Finals Group Stage, when Canada already had 2-0 leads. Going back to April 2021, the Canadian No. 1 is 15-1, with her lone loss coming at the hands of Belinda Bencic and the eventual champion Swiss in the 2022 Finals group stage.

Put simply, Fernandez brings her best to Team Canada.

She will also be arriving in Malaga hot on the heels of one of her best stretches of 2024. Fernandez has won at least two matches in each of her last three events, including a quarter-final in Tokyo and a semifinal in Hong Kong. In both of those events, she lost to the top seed and eventual champion (world No. 7 Qinwen Zheng in Tokyo, who also beat Fernandez in the third round of Wuhan on her way to the final, and No. 16 Diana Shnaider in Hong Kong).

Rebecca Marino

Rank: 115
Billie Jean King Cup Appearance: 13^th
Billie Jean King Cup Record: 7-9
2024 Record: 53-24

While Rebecca Marino has spent more time on the ITF Tour than the WTA Tour in 2024, she has been a force to be reckoned with, scoring the three biggest singles titles of her career. The Canadian veteran won a pair of W100s in Guanajuato and Ilkley early in the season and then last month was victorious on home soil in Calgary at the W75 event.

Prior to 2024, Marino’s best result was a couple of W60 wins. Her three singles titles in 2024 are her most in a season since she won five ITF titles in 2018, although the biggest of those was a W25.

Marino has been a part of every Canadian team in the Billie Jean King Cup since 2021 and has only missed one tie since the beginning of 2019. She is arriving in Malaga with some good recent form, including her title run in Calgary and a strong showing at the WTA 125 event in Tampico, Mexico, where she won the doubles title and reached the singles semifinals.

Gabriela Dabrowski

Rank: 5 (doubles)
Billie Jean King Cup Appearance: 21^st
Billie Jean King Cup Record: 15-12
2024 Record: 34-14

Dabrowski is the most decorated Canadian female tennis player in history and in 2024, she continued to add to her impressive resume.

The Ottawan nabbed a title in June, her 16^th on the WTA Tour, reached another major final at Wimbledon, and ascended to a career-high ranking of No. 3 in doubles in July. She also became the first Canadian woman to win an Olympic medal in tennis, claiming bronze with Félix Auger-Aliassime in mixed doubles at the Paris Olympics.

Her last event before the Billie Jean King Cup Finals is/was the WTA Finals, where she and Erin Routliffe qualified as the second seeds. They went 3-0 in the group stage to qualify for the semifinals.

Like Fernandez, Dabrowski arrives in Malaga on an impressive winning streak in Billie Jean King Cup play. She has won her last seven matches in a row, with her last defeat coming more than three years ago in the 2021 group stage. Twice during the 2023 championship run she came through with a win in the deciding doubles match: in the qualifiers against Belgium and in the semifinals against Czechia, both times partnering with Fernandez.

Marina Stakusic

Rank: 128
Billie Jean King Cup Appearance: 2^nd
Billie Jean King Cup Record: 3-1
2024 Record: 30-23

Stakusic was the unexpected breakout star of the 2023 Billie Jean King Cup Finals. Captain Heidi El Tabakh took a gamble in starting the then-18-year-old in Canada’s opening tie against Spain and Stakusic quickly justified the captain’s choice, easily defeating Spain’s Rebeka Masarova to kick off the Finals on a high note.

That victory propelled Stakusic into the spotlight and she continued to shine, going 3-1 overall in Seville with all three of her wins coming against higher-ranked and more experienced opponents, including a victory in the final over former Roland-Garros semifinalist Martina Trevisan which set up Fernandez’s title-clinching victory.

Throughout 2024, Stakusic has made progress in her development. She won her first WTA 1000-level match in Toronto at the National Bank Open, qualified for her first Grand Slam at Wimbledon, and reached her first tour-level quarter-final at a 500 event in Guadalajara in September.

Like 2023, the teen will arrive at the Billie Jean King Cup Finals in good form. She recently won the biggest title of her career, her first WTA 125 crown in Tampico, Mexico.

Canada has a first-round bye. They will start with their quarter-final on Sunday, Nov. 17 against either Great Britain or Germany.

Viewers can watch Team Canada’s Billie Jean King Cup Finals and Davis Cup Final 8 ties for free on CBC Gem, cbcsports.ca, the CBC Sports app, and CBC Sports’ official YouTube channel. The ties will also be available in French, as TVA Sports and TVA Sports Direct will be showing Canada’s matchups, as well as all semifinals and finals.

Written By

Pete Borkowski