Spain, host of the final phase, will debut this Wednesday (4pm) in the Billie Jean King Cup. He does it against Canada, who arrived in Seville without Bianca Andreescu and with Leylah Fernández as the most outstanding player.
Neither Spain nor Canada made it to the semifinals of a final tournament with the new formatalthough the team led by Anabel Medina is one of the most successful in the competition with five titles, achieved in the 90s with Arantxa Sánchez Vicario and Conchita Martínez.
The match against Canada will mark the return to the courts of Paula Badosa. The Catalan, who announced that he will finish the year after a back operation ruled him out of the second half of the season, leads a team completed by Sara Sorribes, Rebeka Masarova, Cristina Bucsa and Marina Bassols.
Badosa, who dropped to 67th in the WTA ranking and the third national racket so far, He admitted in the press conference before the start of the tournament that “knowing that this tournament is played in Spain is an additional motivation” to speed up the “recovery”, because he “found out it was November”, he knew he could “give it time”.
The New York-born tennis player admitted to reporters that he “misses tennis a lot,” a sport he described as his “passion, but it is not everything in life”, so he took this period of inactivity as “a time to learn many things”, among them “to be patient”.
Canada, Spain’s first opponent, presents a compact quartet led by Leylah Fernándezfinalist of the United States Open two years ago, and the captain, Heidi El Tabakh, doubts the identity of her number two, chosen by Eugenie Bouchard, a Wimbledon finalist in the past but now sunk in the depths of the classification, and the more regular Rebecca Marino.
For the tie-breaking and often decisive doubles match, Canada has Gabriela Dabrowski, a specialist in the modality who (8th in the world) is the current United States Open champion, who will join Fernández, ranked twentieth couple and finalist this year at Roland Garros.
Badosa’s balance is favorable against her two theoretical singles rivals, Leylah Fernández (Canada) and Magda Linette (Poland), whom she defeated in all her previous matches.
Linette, who will lead the Polish team in the absence of Iga Swiatekwho dropped due to the proximity of the WTA Finals she just won, is the highest-ranked singles player in Group C, ranked 23rd in the tournament.
Meanwhile, Fernández has an excellent record in the Billie Jean King Cupwho won 11 of the 14 matches he played in singles and doubles since making his debut against the Czech Republic in April 2019.
After the match against Canada, Spain will close the group stage on Friday (4pm) against Poland. Before, on Thursday, the other series will be held, which will measure Canada against Poland.
Only the top of the group will advance to the semifinals on Saturdaywhere Group C will meet Group A, made up of the Czech Republic, Switzerland and the United States, while Group B (Australia, Kazakhstan and Slovenia) will meet Group D (France, Italy and Germany). Paula Badosa, star in Spain’s debut in the Billie Jean King Cup
Source: La Verdad
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