Team Canada is going to have a very different look during the 2025 Billie Jean King Cup Qualifiers.
Three of the five women who will don the red and white in Tokyo will be representing Canada at the professional level for the first time. Only one player on the team is over the age of 22.
Since there are a lot of new faces, it is important that we take the time to introduce the women of Team Canada for the upcoming Billie Jean King Cup Qualifiers.
Rebecca Marino
Rank: 107
Billie Jean King Cup Appearance: 14th
Billie Jean King Cup Record: 7-10
2025 Record: 7-9
Surrounded by her young teammates, the 34-year-old Vancouverite will be the veteran leader of Team Canada. Marino will be a part of the Canadian squad for the 14th time in her career and has participated in the Billie Jean King Cup every year since 2019.
Despite having a championship ring from 2023, Marino will be hoping to turn her personal fortunes around in the team event as she has lost her last three Billie Jean King Cup matches, including in the 2024 quarter-finals against Great Britain when she lost to Emma Raducanu. Marino’s last victory for Team Canada was in the 2022 qualifiers.
2024 was a career year for the veteran as she picked up the four biggest titles of her career, including her first WTA 125 in November right ahead of the Billie Jean King Cup Finals. 2025 has been a little slower, with her best result so far being a semifinal at the WTA 125 in Mumbai. She also got to the second round of the WTA 250 event in Auckland back in January.
Marina Stakusic
Rank: 126
Billie Jean King Cup Appearance: 3rd
Billie Jean King Cup Record: 3-1
2025 Record: 6-8
The only other player on Canada’s roster for the 2025 Qualifiers is Stakusic, and even she is still relatively green when it comes to the Billie Jean King Cup. Stakusic burst onto the global scene with her incredible performance at the 2023 Finals, playing a critical role in Canada’s victory. But the final against Italy in November 2023 was also the last match she played for Canada as she was not selected to play in the 2024 Finals.
Stakusic followed up her 2023 breakout with a solid showing on tour in 2024, including the biggest title of her career to date at the WTA 125 event in Tampico, Mexico in October. The 20-year-old also qualified for her first major at Wimbledon, won her first WTA 1000 match in Toronto at the National Bank Open, and reached her first WTA Tour quarter-final in Guadalajara.
2025 has a been a bit quiet to start for Stakusic. Her highlight was qualifying for the WTA 250 Transylvania Open and reaching the second round of the main draw.
Victoria Mboko
Rank: 156
Billie Jean King Cup Appearance: 1st
2025 Record: 28-2
Given her remarkable start to the season, Mboko’s selection for Team Canada came as little surprise. The 18-year-old phenom earned her first Billie Jean King Cup nomination by opening up the 2025 season on a 22-match winning streak. On the ITF circuit so far this year, she is 27-1 (including qualifying) with five titles.
As a result of her hot start, Mboko earned a wildcard into her first WTA 1000 event at the Miami Open, where she picked up her first tour-level main draw match win over Camila Osorio. She followed that up with a statement performance against world No. 11 Paula Badosa, pushing the Spaniard to the brink in their epic second-round clash.
While it will be Mboko’s first time representing Canada at the professional level, she did compete for her country at the 2021 Junior Billie Jean King Cup Finals, winning six of eight matches and helping Canada to a fifth-place finish. She also represented Canada twice at the U14 World Junior Tennis Finals in 2018 and 2019.
Kayla Cross
Rank: 221 singles/181 doubles
Billie Jean King Cup Appearance: 1st
2025 Record: 13-5 (singles)
20-year-old Cross started to come into her own as a professional on the ITF circuit in 2024. The London, ON-native won her first professional singles title at the W35 event in Saskatoon and was a force to be reckoned with in doubles, winning six titles including two on home soil in Edmonton and Calgary. Two of her six titles came alongside her new Billie Jean King Cup teammate, Ariana Arseneault.
Her strong results at ITF events on home soil has Cross currently sitting first in the Road to the NBO, which would earn her a main draw wildcard to the National Bank Open this summer in Montreal if she hangs on.
This year, she picked up another ITF singles title in Arcadia, California, but her focus has been on her collegiate career in the NCAA. A freshman at LSU, Cross has been on fire in 2025, currently sitting at No. 7 in the NCAA Division I women’s doubles rankings.
This will be Cross’ second time representing Canada at any competition. She was also part of the 2019 World Junior Tennis team that finished third. Cross was the hero in the bronze medal tie, winning her singles match before clinching the win over Switzerland 2-1 in the doubles with Mboko.
Ariana Arseneault
Rank: 129 (doubles)
Billie Jean King Cup Appearance: 1st
2025 Record: 7-5 (doubles)
Tennis fans in Toronto may be familiar with the 22-year-old Arseneault after she and fellow Canadian Mia Kupres took advantage of a wildcard to reach the quarter-finals of the National Bank Open doubles event last summer, where they were bested by Canada’s top doubles player, Gabriela Dabrowski, and her partner Erin Routliffe.
The run in Toronto was part of a red-hot stretch for Arseneault that saw her win four out of five tournaments, the NBO being the odd one out, picking up ITF doubles titles in Granby, Saskatoon, and two in Punta Cana. The latter two were with Cross.
Arseneault, a former NCAA player at Auburn, already has one title to her name in 2025, picking up a W35 doubles win in Manchester in February. She is currently the third-highest-ranked Canadian in the WTA doubles rankings behind Dabrowski and Leylah Annie Fernandez at No. 132.
Like her fellow Billie Jean King Cup debutants, Arseneault has represented her country at the junior level. She participated in the 2015 ITF World Junior Tennis event on a squad that also featured Fernandez. They finished ninth, with Arseneault scoring both points in their final tie with India.
Feature Photo: Mauricio Paiz
