Photo : Martin Sidorjak
It has been 34 years since Team Canada presented by Sobeys posted their best result at the Billie Jean King Cup, reaching the semifinals in 1988.
In 2022, they may have their best chance ever to match or even better that result.
Canada is sending what might be their strongest team ever fielded in the nation’s history to Glasgow for the Billie Jean King Cup Finals this week with the hope of cementing Canada’s status as a true global power in the sport.
Here’s what you need to know.
What to Watch: Canada’s Dream Team Lands in Glasgow
This week will likely be the last time in 2022 that the best women’s players in the world are competing as the Billie Jean King Cup Finals will bring an end to the highest level of competition in the women’s game.
Team Canada is sending the A team to Glasgow in hopes of claiming a first title. The lineup features the five highest-ranked Canadians on the WTA Tour.
Leylah Annie Fernandez, Bianca Andreescu, and Rebecca Marino, all now ranked inside the Top 70 in singles, will be suiting up for Canada. Doubles world No. 6 Gabriela Dabrowski joins the squad for her 18th tie for Team Canada. Rounding out the lineup is Canada’s singles No. 4 Carol Zhao.
This will be the first time in Billie Jean King Cup competition that both Bianca Andreescu and Leylah Annie Fernandez will play for Canada at the same event. Andreescu last competed for Canada in February 2019 and Fernandez made her debut two months later.
2022 is the second year of the new format for the Billie Jean King Cup, with a round robin followed by a knockout stage. 12 teams are competing at the Finals, divided into four groups of three countries. The top team in each group advances to the semifinals.
Canada is in group A with Switzerland and Italy. Switzerland boasts the highest-ranked player in the group with world No. 13 Belinda Bencic. The Italians are led by Roland-Garros semifinalist Martina Trevisan.
Each tie consists of two singles matches and a doubles match. The No. 2 singles players from each country would play each other followed by the No. 1s and then the doubles match. Whichever nation wins at least two of the three matches wins the tie.
Based on the current rankings, Fernandez will face off with Bencic (Fernandez leads head-to-head 2-1) and Trevisan (Trevisan leads H2H 1-0). Andreescu will be the Canadian No. 2 and is expected to face Jil Teichmann for Switzerland (Andreescu leads 2-1) and Camila Giorgi for Italy (Andreescu leads 1-0).
However, all nominations are subject to change.
Should Canada advance out of the group, they would face the winner of Group D, which includes the Czech Republic, the United States, and an Iga Świątek-less Poland, in the semifinals.
Group B features Australia, Slovakia and Belgium, while group C rounds things out with Spain, Kazakhstan and Great Britain.
Canada will play Italy on Nov. 10 at 10 AM local (5 AM EST) and Switzerland on Nov. 11 at 11:02 AM local (6:02 AM EST).
On the ATP Tour this week, the future of the game is on display at the ATP NextGen Finals in Milan.
Lorenzo Musetti is the highest-ranked player in the draw and the favourite on home soil. He is joined by two other Top 50 players, Jack Draper and Brandon Nakashima.
Rounding out the field in Milan are Jiri Lehecka, Chun-Hsin Tseng, Francesco Passaro, Dominic Stricker and Matteo Arnaldi.
The last three winners of the NextGen Finals are currently all ranked inside the Top 15 on the ATP Tour, including the 2021 champion who went on to win the 2022 US Open and attain the No. 1 ranking, Carlos Alcaraz.
In Case You Missed It: Félix Finally Falls as Rune Rises
All good things must come to an end, and that was the case for Félix Auger-Aliassime last week in Paris.
After winning three titles in three consecutive weeks and going on the longest winning streak by a Canadian man in the Open Era, Auger-Aliassime’s run finally came to an end at the final Masters 1000 event of the season last week, although not before he tacked on three more wins to bring his total winning streak to 16 matches and reach the second Masters 1000 semifinal of his career.
He also did enough to qualify for the ATP Finals for the first time in his career and climb to a new career-high ranking of No. 6.
It looked like the hot streak would end with a thud in his opening match when the Canadian trailed Mikael Ymer by a set and a break, but Auger-Aliassime rallied for a three-set win.
Straightforward wins over Gilles Simon, who was responsible for Auger-Aliassime qualifying for the ATP Finals by knocking off Taylor Fritz, and Frances Tiafoe followed before the Canadian finally ran out of gas in the final four against Holger Rune.
Rune went on to win the title, completing one of the most shocking runs in tennis history. He became the first player to win a Masters 1000 title by defeating five of the world’s Top 10 on his way to victory, having beaten Hubert Hurkacz, Andrey Rublev, Carlos Alcaraz, Auger-Aliassime and then defending champion Novak Djokovic in the final. He also beat three-time major champion Stan Wawrinka in the first round.
Denis Shapovalov lost in the second round to Pablo Carreno Busta. The highly-anticipated Shapovalov-Rafael Nadal round three showdown did not come close to happening as neither man made it to the last sixteen. Playing in his first tour-level event since the US Open, Nadal lost his first match to Tommy Paul in three sets.
The WTA Finals will conclude on Monday, but the Canadian interest ended on Saturday as Gabriela Dabrowski and partner Giuliana Olmos were eliminated in the group stage.
Seeded second, Dabrowski and Olmos posted a 1-2 record, which tied them with two other teams in their group, but they lost out on sets differential which was the tiebreaker.
In the singles, Aryna Sabalenka will play Caroline Garcia for the title. Sabalenka upset world No. 1 Iga Świątek in the semifinals while Garcia defeated Maria Sakkari. Both Świątek and Sakkari had gone 3-0 in the round robin.
Under the Radar: Davis Cup Prep in Calgary
It was a quiet week for the Canadians on the lower tours. At the WTA 125 event in Midland, USA, Katherine Sebov managed to qualify for the main draw and reach the quarter-finals.
All eyes will on Calgary this week for the National Bank Challenger event, which features a large contingent of Canadians include three members of Canada’s Davis Cup squad.
Vasek Pospisil, Alexis Galarneau, and Gabriel Diallo will all be competing in Calgary. All three have also been named to Canada’s squad for the Davis Cup knockout stage later in November.
Pospisil is the second seed, while Galarneau is seeded eighth.
In total, there are six Canadian men in the main draw and one more still alive in qualifying.
Calgary is a W60 event on the ITF Tour and also features a large contingent of Canadian women. Seven are already in the main draw while four are still alive in qualifying.
You can follow the Canadians in action every week here.
