Credit: Eric Bolte-USA TODAY Sports
Marina Stakusic and Leylah Fernandez won their respective singles matches on Sunday to lift Canada to a 2-0 victory over Italy in the Billie Jean King Cup final.
Both Stakusic and Fernandez pulled off sweeps, with the former beating Martina Trevisan 7-5, 6-3 before Fernandez blanked Jasmine Paolini 6-2, 6-3 to secure Canada’s first Billie Jean King Cup title.
Twelve teams were divided into four groups to begin the event with round-robin play. The winner of each group advanced to play in the semifinals on Saturday ahead of Sunday’s final.
Each match consisted of two singles matches followed by a doubles match.
Stakusic, 18, faced a 5-4 deficit in the first set before winning the next three games to prevail. Trevisan put up a fight in the second set, too, overcoming four match points when it was 5-2 in Stakusic’s favor, but the Canadian won the next game on her first match point to complete the sweep.
The only deficit Fernandez faced was at 1-0 in the second set. She converted six of 11 break points and 24 winners compared to just 10 for Paolini, who also recorded 29 unforced errors.
–Field Level Media