Photo: Gyles Dias
The Serbian Tennis Federation announced on Friday that the upcoming Billie Jean King Cup by BNP Paribas play-off tie between Canada and Serbia will take place at the Kraljevo Sport Hall in Kraljevo, Serbia, and will be disputed on an indoor hard court. The choice of surface was made by the Serbian team for the tie that will take place on February 5 and 6, 2021. The player nominations will be announced at a later date
This will be the fourth meeting between these two teams, with the Serbian team leading the head-to-head with two wins. Canada was victorious in their last encounter by a score of 3-1 in the World Group II first round in 2014. They also met in 2011 when Serbia edged out a 3-2 win in the World Group II first round tie, clinching victory in the decisive doubles match as well as in 1980, when Serbia competed as Yugoslavia. Canada is currently ranked no. 16 in the rankings after losing out to the no. 11 ranked Swiss team by a score of 3-1 in the Qualifiers this past February. The Canadian team was made up of Bianca Andreescu (Mississauga, ON), Eugenie Bouchard (Montreal, QC), Leylah Annie Fernandez (Laval, QC) and Gabriela Dabrowski (Ottawa, ON).
For their part, Serbia emerged as one of the winners from the Europe/Africa Zonal Group in February and is currently ranked no. 19 in the world. The nation’s best result was back in 2012 when they reached the final, narrowly losing out to the Czech Republic.
The winner of this tie will earn a spot in the Billie Jean King Cup Qualifiers in 2022 while the losing nation will be relegated to their respective regional Group I.
Originally slated to take place this past April, the Billie Jean King Cup play-offs are being disputed in February 2021 after being postponed due to the ongoing global pandemic.
BILLIE JEAN KING CUP PLAY-OFFS
February 5-6, 2021
Poland* vs. BRAZIL
Mexico* vs. GREAT BRITAIN
Serbia vs. CANADA
LATVIA* vs. India
JAPAN* vs. Ukraine
ROMANIA* vs. Italy
Argentina* vs. KAZAKHSTAN
NETHERLANDS* vs. China
The host nations are listed first, the seeded nations are in capitals.
*Host nations determined by lot.
