Aurélie Sacchelli, Media365, published on Saturday, November 11, 2023 at 11:34 p.m.

While the Czech Republic was the favorite to win the Billie Jean King Cup in Seville, Canada was eliminated in the semi-finals thanks to the doubles. So it is the Canadians who will challenge the Italians in the final on Sunday.

Sensation in Seville! As favorites for the final phase of the Billie Jean King Cup, the Czechs were eliminated on Saturday evening after the double against the Canadians. Gabriela Dabrowski, world number 8 in doubles, and Leylah Fernandez, 20th, have actually eliminated the pair consisting of Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova, who play together all year round and finished the season in fourth place in the world rankings with a score of 7-5, 7-6 in 1h50. The Canadians won the first set 5-5 thanks to a decisive break on the very first break point of the set. In the second game, the two pairs broke out against each other 3:3 and 4:3, and only in the decisive game did they have to decide. A decisive game that was mastered perfectly by the Canadians, who won 7-3 and qualified their country for their first ever final.

A year after the Davis Cup, the BJK Cup?

A little earlier in the afternoon, world number 10 Barbora Krejcikova had put the Czech Republic on the right track by defeating 18-year-old Marina Stakusic, 258th, by a score of 6-2, 6-1 in 1:22 defeated. Marketa Vondrousova, the Wimbledon champion, then had the task of qualifying her team for the final, but The world number 7 lost in three sets and 2:03 hours of play to the 35th in the world and former US Open finalist Leylah Fernandez: 6-2, 2-6, 6-3. Since beating Stearns in the US Open round of 16, Vondrousova has only won one of her six matches! A year after Canada’s Denis Shapovalov and Felix Auger-Aliassime win in the Davis Cup, the country has a chance to win its first Billie Jean King Cup (or Fed Cup) on Sunday against Italy, which is seeking its fifth success after 2006, 2009, 2010 and 2013. Given the two squads and the rankings, Italy seems to have the advantage in singles (two players in the top 50, only one on the Canadian side) and Canada in doubles. The Italians would therefore do better to end the affair 2-0…