Tag Archives: Martina Trevisan

Leylah Fernandez Helps Lead Canada to Country’s First-Ever Billie Jean King Cup Title

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Leylah Fernandez has helped Canada make history…

The 21-year-old half-Ecuadorian Canadian tennis player and her compatriot Marina Stakusic won their singles matches as Canada beat Italy 2-0 to claim its first-ever Billie Jean King Cup title on Sunday.

Leylah FernandezStakusic, ranked 258th in the world, put Canada ahead by defeating No. 43 Martina Trevisan 7-5, 6-3 for the biggest win of her career, then Fernandez sealed the victory by beating Jasmine Paolini 6-2, 6-3 at La Cartuja Stadium.

The 20th-ranked Fernandez, runner-up in the 2021 US Open, was perfect for Canada in Seville with four victories, while the 18-year-old Stakusic entered the tournament without a win over a top-100 opponent but earned three of them while representing her nation in Spain.

“I’m so happy and honored that I could play this week,” Stakusic, who didn’t play a WTA main draw match this year, said on court. “This has been the best week of my life.”

Canada defeated 11-time champion Czech Republic in the semifinals, while four-time champion Italy advanced past Slovenia for its first final appearance since 2013.

The 12-team BJK Cup Finals offered a record total of $9.6 million in prize money, including $2.4 million to the champions, the same as the men’s Davis Cup.

Canada, captained by Heidi El Tabakh, is the 13th nation to win the Billie Jean King Cup and the second new champion after Switzerland‘s triumph in Glasgow a year ago.

“I don’t know what to say,” El Tabakh said. “I’m so proud of this team. These girls are incredible. It’s a dream come true.”

The Canada men’s team is the current Davis Cup champion.

The women’s teams competed in four round-robin groups, with the winners advancing to the semifinals. The United States was eliminated by the Czech Republic in a group that also included title-holder Switzerland.

The biggest team competition in women’s tennis started two days after the end of the WTA Finals in Cancun, Mexico, which featured the top eight players on the tour — including winner Iga Swiatek.

Leylah Fernandez Leads Canada to Maiden Billie Jean King Cup Finals

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Leylah Fernandez has pulled off two big upsets to help lead Canada into a historic first appearance in the Billie Jean King Cup finals.

The 21-year-old half-Ecuadorian Canadian tennis player pulled off gripping upset wins in singles and doubles at the Billie Jean King Cup in Seville, Spain on Saturday.

Leylah Fernandez Behind Fernandez’s two victories, Canada stunned 11-time champion Czech Republic 2-1 in Saturday’s semifinals. Canada, whose lone previous trip to the event’s semifinals was in 1988, will take on Italy for their first Billie Jean King Cup title on Sunday.

Four-time titlist Italy reached the championship match of the Billie Jean King Cup Finals for the first time in exactly a decade after Martina Trevisan and Jasmine Paolini picked up singles wins at the prestigious team event earlier on Saturday.

Canada had to battle back from a match down to reach the milestone. 2021 Roland Garros singles champion Barbora Krejcikova started the semifinal tie with a 6-2, 6-1 win over rising 18-year-old Marina Stakusic, who was facing a Top 10 player for the first time in her career.

However, Fernandez leveled the tie at 1-1 by upsetting reigning Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova 6-2, 2-6, 6-3. Vondrousova had won her last 11 Billie Jean King Cup singles matches in straight sets — including a win over Fernandez in 2019 — but the Canadian ended that streak.

Fernandez earned the fifth Top 10 win of her career with the victory — and her first Top 10 win since she beat three Top 5 players en route to the 2021 US Open final. Fernandez had gone 0-7 against Top 10 players between the 2021 US Open and Saturday’s win.

Shortly thereafter, Fernandez returned to court, where she paired with reigning US Open doubles champion Gabriela Dabrowski to face the seven-time Grand Slam-winning duo of Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova, with a trip to the final in the balance.

In the first set of the doubles match, there were no break points for either team until 5-5, where the Canadians broke through after Siniakova double faulted on deciding point. Dabrowski then held serve at love to squeak out the opening set.

The second set was even closer and went down to the tiebreak, where Fernandez slammed a backhand winner down the line to earn the first mini-break at 3-2. The Canadians never relinquished that advantage, holding on for a 7-5, 7-6(3) win and booking a historic spot in the final.

Leylah Fernandez Defeats Amanda Anisimova to Reach Her First-Ever French Open Quarterfinals

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It’s a new personal best for Leylah Fernandez at the French Open…

The 19-year-old half-Ecuadorian Canadian tennis player outlasted USA’s Amanda Anisimova 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 in their fourth-round match on Sunday in Paris, France to reach her first-ever quarterfinals at Roland Garros.

Leylah FernandezFernandez’s opportunities abound in a decimated women’s singles draw that lost nine of its top 10 seeds in the first week.

Only world No. 1 Iga Swiatek remains. She’s in the other half, and the two could only meet in the final.

“It was a very hard match, an incredible match for the both of us. I think we brought a high level,” Fernandez said of the win over Anisimova.

The American was a women’s singles semifinalist at age 17, in 2019, the year 16-year-old Fernandez won the junior girls’ title.

Since then, their careers have gone in somewhat opposite directions.

“I’m just glad that today I was able to fight through some difficult moments and just enjoy the game as much as possible,” Fernandez added.

Fernandez, now based in Florida, will next face No. 59 ranked Martina Trevisan, who beat Belarusian Aliaksandra Sasnovich 7-6 (10), 7-5 in the fourth round on Sunday.

Fernandez is the first Canadian woman to make the Roland Garros quarterfinals since Eugenie Bouchard in 2014.

Nadia Podoroska Advances to French Open Quarterfinals

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Nadia Podoroska continues her Cinderella run at the French Open…

The 23-year-old Argentine tennis player, a qualifier at this year’s event, outlasted the Czech Republic’s Barbora Krejcikova 2-6, 6-2, 6-3 on Sunday to reach the quarterfinals at Roland Garros in her maiden appearance at the Grand Slam tournament.

Nadia Podoroska

Podoroska, ranked No. 131 in the world, will face third seed Elina Svitolina of Ukraine for a place in the semifinals.

Podoroska was the second qualifier to make the tournament’s last eight on Sunday following Italian world No. 159 Martina Trevisan‘s win over Dutch fifth seed Kiki Bertens.

Podoroska, who was ranked at No. 255 at the start of the season, has now won 42 matches across all tours in 2020, despite the truncated season, and will make her top 100 debut after the tournament.

She will now bid to emulate compatriot Paola Suarez who made the semifinals in Paris in 2004.

Three years ago, on her only other visit to Paris, Podoroska fell in the first round of qualifying, losing to Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic in just 39 minutes, winning just 21 points.