Led by the inspired play of Leylah Fernandez, Canada has reached the final of the Billie Jean King Cup for the first time.
Fernadez 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 advanced with a 2-1 overall victory in the semifinal of the women’s international team tennis tournament.
Fernandez gave Canada hope with a singles win against Marketa Vondrousova, 6-2, 2-6, 6-3, earlier in the day. She and Dabrowski then took down one of the best doubles teams in the world in the finale in Seville, Spain.
“It’s a great day for Canadian tennis,” said Fernandez, who added that the Canadian men’s victory in the 2022 Davis Cup inspired her and her teammates.
“In the singles match, I was super happy to have the crowd with me, cheering me on that really helped me.”
WATCH l Canada punches ticket to Billie Jean King Cup finals for 1st time:
Canada clinches historic berth in Billie Jean King Cup finals with deciding doubles victory
3 hours ago
Duration 2:15
Featured VideoLeylah Fernandez and Gabriela Dabrowski defeated Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova of Czechia 7-5, 7-6(3) to punch Canada’s ticket to the Billie Jean King Cup finals for the first time in history.
Canada will meet Italy in the 12-country final on Sunday.
Live coverage of the final begins at 9 a.m. ET on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports app and CBC Gem.
Dabrowski, a 31-year-old from Ottawa, won the U.S. Open women’s doubles championship two months ago.
Krejcikova, the 2021 French Open champion, has paired with Siniakova to win seven major doubles titles, including this year’s Australian Open.
Canada won the opening set of the decisive doubles match. The teams stayed on serve until Canada broke their opponents to take a 6-5 advantage and then closed the deal with a win on serve.
The teams traded breaks late in the second set, and then Canada persevered in the tiebreaker, with Fernandez serving to send her team into the final.
Canada’s Marina Stakusic opened the semifinal with a 2-6, 1-6 loss to Krejcikova. But Fernandez kept Canada’s hopes alive with her win over Vondrousova, the reigning Wimbledon women’s champion, in the day’s second match.
“I just played my game and tried to take it to her,” the 21-year-old Fernandez said after her singles win. “I love Billie Jean Cup tennis. It’s the World Cup of tennis.”
WATCH | Stakusic loses opening match of semis:
Canada’s Marina Stakusic falls to Barbora Krejcikova to open Billie Jean King Cup semifinals
8 hours ago
Duration 1:47
Featured VideoThe 18-year-old from Mississauga, Ont. lost to Czechia’s Barbora Krejcikova in straight sets (2-6, 1-6) in the opening semifinals match of the Billie Jean King Cup Finals.
Canada advanced to the semifinals of the prestigious team event for only the second time and first since 1988.
Vondrousova, who broke through for a Grand Slam win at Wimbledon this summer, has won 14 straight matches at the Billie Jean Cup.
The world No. 7 saw her 26-set win and 13-match win streak snapped at the Billie Jean King Cup by Fernandez.
Fernandez held serve in a lengthy 10-minute opening game. She swiftly snatched a 4-0 lead and hung on for a 6-2 first-set victory.
WATCH | Fernandez keeps Canada alive:
Leylah Fernandez earns crucial victory to tie Billie Jean King Cup semifinals
5 hours ago
Duration 2:07
Featured VideoThe Laval, Que. native defeated Czechia’s Marketa Vondrousova 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 to force an all-important deciding third match of the Billie Jean King Cup semifinals.
The tables were reversed in the second set. Vondrousova rallied to win the second set, going ahead 4-0 to force a deciding set with a 6-2 second-set victory.
Vondrousova and Fernandez broke each other’s serve to begin the deciding set. But the Montreal native, ranked No. 35 in the world, gave Canada a 3-1 lead, winning her serve in the second game and breaking Vondrousova and hung on to force a deciding doubles game.
Stakusic’s magical run ended in the opening match against Czechia. Ranked 258th in the world, the 18-year-old from Toronto shocked two top-70 players in opening wins in Canada’s group-stage victories against Spain and Poland.
She fell behind the 27-year-old Krejcikova after the Czech broke the Canadian’s opening-match service game.
Stakusic fought back to trail in the first set 3-2, but the 2021 French Open women’s champion stormed out to win three straight games to grab the lead.
World No. 10 Krejcikova was even better against her young opponent, winning the second set 6-1 to put a point on the board for Czechia.
In the first semifinal on Saturday, Jasmine Paolini defeated Tamara Zidansek, and Martina Trevisan downed Kaja Juvan as Italy sealed a 2-0 win against Slovenia.
The eighth-seeded Italians will seek their fifth Billie Jean Cup title, the first since 2013.
PARIS – Canada won its first Paralympic medal in women’s sitting volleyball and ended the country’s team sport podium drought Saturday.
The women’s volleyball team swept Brazil 3-0 (25-15, 25-18, 25-18) to take the bronze medal at North Paris Arena.
The women were the first Canadian side to claim a Paralympic medal in a team sport since the men’s wheelchair basketball team won gold in London in 2012.
“Oh my gosh, literally disbelief, but also, we did it,” said veteran Heidi Peters of Neerlandia, Alta. “It’s indescribable.”
Canada finished seventh in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and fourth in Tokyo three years ago.
Seven players of the dozen Canadians were Rio veterans and nine returned from the team in Tokyo.
Eleven were members of the squad that earned a silver medal at the 2022 world championship.
“I know how hard every athlete and every staff member and all of our family back home have worked for this moment,” captain Danielle Ellis said.
“It’s been years and years and years in the making, our third Paralympic Games, and we knew we wanted to be there.”
The women earned a measure of revenge on the Brazilians, who beat Canada for bronze in Tokyo and also in a pool game in Paris.
“There’s a lot of history with us and Brazil,” Peters acknowledged. “Today we just knew that we could do it. We were like, ‘This is our time and if we just show up and play our style of volleyball, serving tough and hitting the ball hard, the game will probably going our way.’ And it did.”
Calgary’s Jennifer Oakes led Canada with 10 attack points. Ellis of White Rock, B.C., and Peters each contributed nine.
Canada registered 15 digs as a team to Brazil’s 10.
“Losing to Brazil in the second game was tough,” Ellis said. “It just lit the fire beneath us.”
Canada’s men’s wheelchair basketball team fell 75-62 to Germany in the bronze-medal game in Paris.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 7, 2024.
PARIS – Canadian para canoeist Brianna Hennessy raced to her first Paralympic medal with a reminder of her mother on her paddle.
The 39-year-old from Ottawa took silver in the women’s 200-metre sprint Saturday in Paris.
The design on Hennessy’s paddle includes a cardinal in remembrance of her late mother Norma, the letter “W’ for Wonder Woman and a cat.
“My mother passed away last year, so I said I’d be racing down the course with her,” Hennessy said Saturday at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium.
“In our family, a cardinal represents what our love means. My mum was my Wonder Woman, and this is a cardinal rising up. This is our family pet that passed away two months after my mum, of cancer, because I think their love was together.
“All this represents so much to me, so it’s my passion piece for Paris.”
Hennessy finished just over a second behind gold medallist Emma Wiggs of Britain in the women’s VL2 Va’a, which is a canoe that has a support float and is propelled with a single-blade paddle.
Hennessy’s neck was broken when she was struck by a speeding taxi driver in Toronto in 2014 when she was 30. She has tetraplegia, which is paralysis in her arms and legs.
“This year’s the 10-year anniversary of my accident,” Hennessy said. “I should have been dead. I’ve been fighting back ever since.
“This is the pinnacle of it all for me and everything I’ve been fighting for. It made it all worth it.”
After placing fifth in her Paralympic debut in Tokyo three years ago, Hennessy was a silver medallist in the last three straight world championships in the event.
She will race the women’s kayak single Sunday. Hennessy and Wiggs have a tradition of hugging after races.
“I always talk about the incredible athletes here, and how the Paralympics means so much more because everyone here has a million reasons to give up, and we’ve all chosen to just go on,” the Canadian said. “It’s more about the camaraderie.”
Hennessy boxed and played hockey and rugby before she was hit by the taxi.
She was introduced to wheelchair rugby by the Ottawa Hospital Rehabilitation Centre.
She eventually turned to paddling at the Ottawa River Canoe Club, which led her to the Paralympic podium in Paris.
“It has a good ring to it,” Hennessy said. “I’m so happy. I feel like we’ve had to overcome so much to get here, especially in the last year and a half. I’m just so proud.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 7, 2024.
