Canadian tennis coup

Canada’s women’s tennis made history yesterday. Teenagers Marina Stakusic and Leylah Fernandez won the Billie Jean King Cup for the first time with singles victories over Italy’s Martina Trevisan and Jasmine Paolini in Seville. They followed their male colleagues, who brought the Davis Cup to Canada for the first time in November of the previous year.

Above all, the 7:5, 6:3 victory of the only 18-year-old Stakusic, who is currently only 258th in the WTA ranking, over the world number 43. Trevisan was a real surprise. “I am so happy and honored that I was able to play this week. It was the best week of my life,” said Stakusic, who has not played in any main WTA Tour competition this year, nor on the court. Afterwards, former US Open finalist Leylah Fernandez didn’t miss the chance to win the big coup. She defeated Paolini safely 6:2, 6:3.

Victory in the traditional competition is also financially very profitable for Canada: no less than 2.4 million US dollars were paid out for the title this year. For the first time, in addition to the trophy, the winners also received the new “Billie Blue” jackets with a personal dedication from Billie Jean King on the inside.

Sovereign Sinner

Even before the game there were big question marks about the fitness of Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas after he had to stop training twice. Yesterday at the start of the ATP Finals in Turin he lost to South Tyrolean Jannik Sinner in the green group 4:6, 4:6. Novak Djokovic’s top evening game against Holger Rune was still in progress when printing began.