Monday Digest: Billie Jean King Cup Caps Off Incredible Canadian Week

For at least this week and the next, Canada are the undisputed champions of the tennis world. 

With their historic victory at the Billie Jean King Cup on Sunday, Canada became the sixth country to hold both major team competition trophies simultaneously. 

And that incredible performance by the women in Seville overshadowed some impressive Canadian results elsewhere around the globe, including on home soil. 

Here’s what you need to know. 

In Case You Missed It: Queens of the World 

While many fans and players may have mixed feelings about the system of playing the Billie Jean King Cup and Davis Cup finals at a “neutral” site, Team Canada presented by Sobeys seems to be just fine playing in Spain. 

A year after the Canadian men won the title in Malaga, the women followed suit a little further west in Seville, claiming their first title at the women’s world cup of tennis with a dominant performance against Italy in the final. 

Canada was rock solid all week in southern Spain, losing just one match and four total sets in their four ties. 

Read also: Canada Stands Alone Atop the Tennis World

In the group stage, they swept Spain and Poland to finish atop the group and then upset Czechia in the semifinals.  

Leylah Annie Fernandez once again raised her level when playing for her country, winning all five matches she played, going 4-0 in singles including a Top 10 win over Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova and scoring the clinching point in the final over Jasmine Paolini. 

Marina Stakusic was the surprise star of the Finals, winning three of four singles matches in her first appearance for Team Canada. Gabriela Dabrowski went 3-0 in doubles, two wins with Eugenie Bouchard and one with Fernandez. 

What to Watch: ATP Finals Owns the Week 

The Billie Jean King Cup Finals marked the end of the season on the main tour for the WTA, with just a few 125-level events remaining. 

On the men’s side, the ATP Finals got underway on Sunday in Turin with the Top 8 singles players and doubles teams competing.  

Novak Djokovic and Jannik Sinner kicked off play with wins. They are in the Green Group with Holger Rune and Stefanos Tsitsipas. The Red Group includes Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev, Andrey Rublev, and Alexander Zverev. 

With his win over Rune on Sunday, Djokovic clinched the year-end No. 1 ranking for the eighth time. 

No Canadians qualified for the ATP Finals. 

Under the Radar: Canadian Men Clean Up in Calgary 

While the eyes of the tennis world were fixed on Seville, Canadians also had reason to celebrate out west as both of the men’s titles at the ATP Challenger event in Calgary were claimed by home favourites. 

As is becoming relatively common, Liam Draxl won his first ATP Challenger title at home by defeating top seed Dominik Koepfer in three sets. Draxl is the third Canadian in the last 18 months to win his first Challenger on home soil after both Gabriel Diallo and Alexis Galarneau had their breakthroughs in Granby. 

It is the third title of the year and fifth overall for Draxl although by far the biggest, as all of his previous trophies were at the ITF M15 level. 

Canadian men also claimed the doubles title, with Juan Carlos Aguilar and Justin Boulais lifting the trophy. For Boulais, it was his second title in Alberta in a month, having won the singles in Edmonton in October. 

Stacey Fung nearly made it a Canadian trifecta, reaching the W60 singles final but lost a three-set nailbiter to Sabine Lisicki. 

Adding to the Canadian glory on the weekend was Carson Branstine, who doubled up at the W15 event in Monastir with singles and doubles titles. 

Getting into the singles draw as a qualifier, Branstine knocked off the fourth, fifth, and sixth seeds on her way to the final, where she defeated Ranah Akua Stoiber in three sets to win her second ITF singles title and first since 2021. 

In the doubles, she and Selina Dal of Germany did not drop a set on their way to the final, where they beat the second seeds 10-8 in the match tiebreak. It is also the second doubles title of Branstine’s career and first since winning Gatineau in 2018 with Bianca Andreescu. 

There is another ATP Challenger taking place this week on Canadian soil in Drummondville with a strong Canadian contingent, including the Calgary champions. 

You can follow the Canadians in action every week here.