Canada Swept Out in Billie Jean King Cup Quarter-Finals by Great Britain

Great Britain defeated Team Canada in the quarterfinals of the Billie Jean King Cup on Sunday in Malaga, Spain, bringing an abrupt end to the 2023 champions’ championship defence.

Rebecca Marino and Leylah Annie Fernandez both lost their singles bouts in straight sets as the British swept Canada. Neither Canadian woman was able to pull their opponent back after getting off to a bad start.

The doubles was not played because Britain won both of the singles matches.

Marino woke up first and had a terrible start to her first day. Marino struggled with consistency, making 38 unforced mistakes compared to just 11 victories. Just 60% of the points were won by the big-serving Canadian, who only won 52% of her second serve and 59% of her first serve. In addition, she was broken four times and was unable to convert any of her seven break points.

Raducanu soon got into her rhythm and put pressure on the Canadian during the first service game. Marino wasn’t playing at her best yet, and that Brit created a few break points by taking advantage of her opponent’s hesitant play. After blasting her way out of the first two, the veteran lost the third goal right away after slicing the ball into the net. King Cup, Billie Jean Raducanu consistently drove deep returns into Marino’s feet, seemingly reading the Canadian’s powerful serve even as Marino began to pick up the pace. Back-to-back mistakes cost her another break, but Marino saved both with large serves and another with a forehand winner after such a return gave her a double break look in the veteran’s subsequent serve game.

In the first set, Raducanu had everything under control. She opened the tie with a bagel and broke for the third time via form-aggressive hitting. match in more than a year and a half, and although she continued to improve during the match, she lost 6-0, 7-5 against the former US Open champion.