When longtime tennis coach Mike Thomson started working with Canada’s Marina Stakusic during her junior days, he could tell almost immediately that she had tremendous potential.
The telltale sign was the sound the ball made when it came off her racket.
“Everything is in the middle of the racket every single time and that was Marina when she was eight,” Thomson said. “She just hit the ball solidly every single time.”
Stakusic, now 18, is enjoying a breakout performance this week at the Billie Jean King Cup Finals. She was a surprise selection for singles play and earned a 6-3, 6-1 upset win over Rebeka Masarova of host Spain in her debut Wednesday.
“I think she handled herself incredibly well when she was under pressure, when her opponent was maybe giving signs of coming back to life,” said Sylvain Bruneau, a high-performance consultant with Tennis Canada. “I think she was fabulous in making sure that didn’t happen.”
Stakusic, from Mississauga, Ont., developed her skills as a youngster at the Eglinton Flats Winter Tennis Club. Thomson has served as tennis director at the west Toronto facility for over two decades.
“Nothing ever got to her,” Thomson recalled in a phone interview with The Canadian Press. “She never got mad on a tennis court. Tennis is such a mental game. You have to keep your composure at all times.
“Marina is always composed on the tennis court — always. Right from eight years old.”
Stakusic played like a veteran in front of a partisan crowd on Wednesday, showing no signs of jitters on one of the sport’s biggest stages. Captain Heidi el Tabakh gave her the nod over more experienced teammates Rebecca Marino and Eugenie Bouchard.
“We knew she was in full confidence mode,” Bruneau said. “She had done really well recently. That’s a factor you want to consider. We also felt that she’s young, up and coming, we felt it would be a lot of pressure on her opponent’s shoulders to play her and that’s exactly what happened.”
She got the starting assignment again Thursday and came through with a 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 win over Poland’s Magdalena Frech. Leylah Fernandez again followed with a singles victory to secure Canada’s berth in the final four at the 12-team event.
Teenager Marina Stakusic puts Canada 1 win away from Billie Jean King Cup semis
Featured Video18-year-old Marina Stakusic of Mississauga, Ont., won for a second day in a row, rallying to a 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 victory over Poland’s Magdalena Frech at the Billie Jean King Cup Finals in Seville, Spain.
The Canadians were off Friday ahead of Saturday’s semifinals. The final was scheduled for Sunday.
Stakusic has won three lower-level ITF tournaments this year since returning from a six-month injury layoff. She’s not afraid to be aggressive on court and use her well-rounded game to her advantage.
“She’s got a lot of tools in her toolbox,” Bruneau said from Seville. “She’s got a great backhand slice, she’s able to do angles, she’s able to change the pace of the ball, which combined with her really heavy ground strokes is quite interesting.
“She loves to come in (to the net) actually. She comes in a lot to finish points, so she’s really good at the net. So you put all of that together, she has a very complete game.”
Once the BJK Cup Finals are complete, Bruneau said he’ll join Stakusic at a Challenger tournament in Portugal. He said after some rest, she will split off-season training between Montreal and Florida.
“I think she’s going to be a really accomplished player,” he said. “There’s no doubt.”
Stakusic, the world No. 258, has yet to play a main draw match on the WTA Tour. She reached the final round of qualifying at the National Bank Open last summer in Montreal.
Stakusic was named ITF player of the month for September.
“It’s a tennis instructor’s dream to watch somebody like that hit a tennis ball,” Thomson said. “There’s really not much to teach somebody like that. The package comes to you. It’s amazing.”
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe remain undefeated in women’s doubles at the WTA Finals.
The 2023 U.S. Open champions, seeded second at the event, secured a 1-6, 7-6 (1), (11-9) super-tiebreak win over fourth-seeded Italians Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini in round-robin play on Tuesday.
The season-ending tournament features the WTA Tour’s top eight women’s doubles teams.
Dabrowski and Routliffe lost the first set in 22 minutes but levelled the match by breaking Errani’s serve three times in the second, including at 6-5. They clinched victory with Routliffe saving a match point on her serve and Dabrowski ending Errani’s final serve-and-volley attempt.
Dabrowski and Routliffe will next face fifth-seeded Americans Caroline Dolehide and Desirae Krawczyk on Thursday, where a win would secure a spot in the semifinals.
The final is scheduled for Saturday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Nov. 5, 2024.
EDMONTON – Jake Allen made 31 saves for his second shutout of the season and 26th of his career as the New Jersey Devils closed out their Western Canadian road trip with a 3-0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Monday.
Jesper Bratt had a goal and an assist and Stefan Noesen and Timo Meier also scored for the Devils (8-5-2) who have won three of their last four on the heels on a four-game losing skid.
The Oilers (6-6-1) had their modest two-game winning streak snapped.
Calvin Pickard made 13 stops between the pipes for Edmonton.
TAKEAWAYS
Devils: In addition to his goal, Bratt picked up his 12th assist of the young season to give him nine points in his last eight games and now 15 points overall. Nico Hischier remains in the team lead, picking up an assist of his own to give him 16 points for the campaign. He has a point in all but four games this season.
Oilers: Forward Leon Draisaitl was held pointless after recording six points in his previous two games and nine points in his previous four. Draisaitl usually has strong showings against the Devils, coming into the contest with an eight-game point streak against New Jersey and 11 goals in 17 games.
KEY MOMENT
New Jersey took a 2-0 lead on the power play with 3:26 remaining in the second period as Hischier made a nice feed into the slot to Bratt, who wired his third of the season past Pickard.
KEY RETURN?
Oilers star forward and captain Connor McDavid took part in the optional morning skate for the Oilers, leading to hopes that he may be back sooner rather than later. McDavid has been expected to be out for two to three weeks with an ankle injury suffered during the first shift of last Monday’s loss in Columbus.
OILERS DEAL FOR D-MAN
The Oilers have acquired defenceman Ronnie Attard from the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for defenceman Ben Gleason.
The 6-foot-3 Attard has spent the past three season in the Flyers organization seeing action in 29 career games. The 25-year-old right-shot defender and Western Michigan University grad was originally selected by Philadelphia in the third round of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft. Attard will report to the Oilers’ AHL affiliate in Bakersfield.
UP NEXT
Devils: Host the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday.
Oilers: Host the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 4, 2024.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Patrick Mahomes threw for 291 yards and three touchdowns, and Kareem Hunt pounded into the end zone from two yards out in overtime to give the unbeaten Kansas City Chiefs a 30-24 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday night.
DeAndre Hopkins had two touchdown receptions for the Chiefs (8-0), who drove through the rain for two fourth-quarter scores to take a 24-17 lead with 4:17 left. But then Kansas City watched as Baker Mayfield led the Bucs the other way in the final minute, hitting Ryan Miller in the end zone with 27 seconds to go in regulation time.
Tampa Bay (4-5) elected to kick the extra point and force overtime, rather than go for a two-point conversion and the win. And it cost the Buccaneers when Mayfield called tails and the coin flip was heads. Mahomes and the Chiefs took the ball, he was 5-for-5 passing on their drive in overtime, and Hunt finished his 106-yard rushing day with the deciding TD plunge.
Travis Kelce had 14 catches for 100 yards with girlfriend Taylor Swift watching from a suite, and Hopkins finished with eight catches for 86 yards as the Chiefs ran their winning streak to 14 dating to last season. They became the sixth Super Bowl champion to start 8-0 the following season.
Mayfield finished with 200 yards and two TDs passing for the Bucs, who have lost four of their last five.
It was a memorable first half for two players who had been waiting to play in Arrowhead Stadium.
The Bucs’ Rachaad White grew up about 10 minutes away in a tough part of Kansas City, but his family could never afford a ticket for him to see a game. He wound up on a circuitous path through Division II Nebraska-Kearney and a California junior college to Arizona State, where he eventually became of a third-round pick of Tampa Bay in the 2022 draft.
Two year later, White finally got into Arrowhead — and the end zone. He punctuated his seven-yard scoring run in the second quarter, which gave the Bucs a 7-3 lead, by nearly tossing the football into the second deck.
Then it was Hopkins’ turn in his first home game since arriving in Kansas City from a trade with the Titans.
The three-time All-Pro, who already had caught four passes, reeled in a third-down heave from Mahomes amid triple coverage for a 35-yard gain inside the Tampa Bay five-yard line. Three plays later, Mahomes found him in the back of the end zone, and Hopkins celebrated his first TD with the Chiefs with a dance from “Remember the Titans.”
Tampa Bay tried to seize control with consecutive scoring drives to start the second half. The first ended with a TD pass to Cade Otton, the latest tight end to shred the Chiefs, and Chase McLaughlin’s 47-yard field goal gave the Bucs a 17-10 lead.
The Chiefs answered in the fourth quarter. Mahomes marched them through the rain 70 yards for a tying touchdown pass, which he delivered to Samaje Perine while landing awkwardly and tweaking his left ankle, and then threw a laser to Hopkins on third-and-goal from the Buccaneers’ five-yard line to give Kansas City the lead.
Tampa Bay promptly went three-and-out, but its defence got the ball right back, and this time Mayfield calmly led his team down field. His capped the drive with a touchdown throw to Miller — his first career TD catch — with 27 seconds to go, and Tampa Bay elected to play for overtime.
UP NEXT
Buccaneers: Host the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.
