Billie Jean King Cup: Canada eliminated

Canadians Leylah Fernandez and Bianca Andreescu both suffered defeat in the Billie Jean King Cup tennis showdown against Switzerland on Friday in Glasgow, so their country suffered elimination.

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Thanks to the gains of Viktorija Golubic and Belinda Bencic at the expense of Andreescu and Fernandez respectively, the Swiss formation reached the semi-final of the competition. Absolutely to win to prolong hostilities and force a decisive doubles match, Fernandez, 40th in the world, lost 6-0 and 7-5 in front of the 12th racket in the world.

The maple leaf athlete did nothing worthwhile in the first set, winning only 10 points out of a possible 35. On the other hand, she was much more tenacious in the second set, but breaks conceded to her last two service possessions hurt.

When she had the first balls in hand, the Quebecer won 45% of the points played, compared to 71% for her rival. Bencic managed six breaks against two for her opponent.

Nice effort from Andreescu

For his part, Andreescu couldn’t finish the job in his duel against Golubic, losing 2-6, 6-3 and 6-4 in the first game of the day.

However, she had started the confrontation well, but some unforced errors committed on long rallies led to her loss. Golubic, 77th racket in the world, pocketed 81 points, two less than the Ontarian, 45th on the WTA circuit. Each woman had four breaks, but in the case of the loser, three of her enemy service catches came in the first set.

“I think I fought well, but she played terrific tennis. In the first set, I was the most aggressive person. In the second and third, I made the same gestures, except that she came back in force, declared the Ontarian in the post-game conference, while giving credit to her opponent. By being late 5 to 1 [au dernier set], I felt I had to do more. However, it didn’t necessarily work. Today there were a lot of ups and downs. I fought to the best of my abilities and in my opinion, I could have played much better at times, being more strategically intelligent. It’s obviously disappointing. »

“I wasn’t necessarily surprised with her game, she was solid, whether it was with the forehands or the backhands. His serve isn’t the fastest, but he’s still efficient, she added. His moves were amazing and it looks like in the third set his match started. She wasn’t even sweating. »

Playing in Group A, the two nations have previously defeated Italy, with Canada sweeping the honors in all three of their Thursday encounters. A final duel in doubles is scheduled to conclude the preliminary round.