Canada beats Italy to win first-ever Billie Jean King Cup title

For the first time in the competition's 60-year history, Canada are Billie Jean King Cup champions.

The Canadians' Cinderella run finished Sunday with a 2-0 triumph against Italy, as Marina Stakusic and Leylah Fernandez beat Martina Trevisan and Jasmine Paolini, respectively, to win the title.

Stakusic, 18, was a revelation all week in Seville, and her star turn continued in the final. The debutant, ranked No. 258, beat former Roland Garros semifinalist Trevisan 7-5, 6-3 in the opening match.

Stakusic finished the week with a 3-1 record. She beat Rebeka Masarova and Magdalena French in Canada's round-robin wins against Spain and Poland, and lost to world No. 10 Barbora Krejcikova in the semifinals. though Canada won the tie, 2-1. Her win against Trevisan, the world No. 43, was her first against a Top 50 player.

"[As the week went on and just training with these girls all the time, I knew that we all were gaining confidence and we really believe in ourselves," Stakusic said afterwards. "It all ended up paying off in the end. It's been an incredible week, and I'm super happy I got to spend it with these women."

From 3-0 up in the opening set, Stakusic won three straight games after Trevisan failed to serve it out at 5-4. After failing to covert any of four match points in the eighth game of the second set, Stakusic closed out the match on serve to love, crunching an inside-out forehand winner to seal the final's first point.

2021 US Open finalist Fernandez delivered the clinching with against Jasmine Paolini, 6-2, 6-3 to finish the week at 5-0. The left-hander was responsible for both Canadian wins against the Czech Repbulic in the semifinals: She edged Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova in three sets to send the tie to a deciding doubles rubber, where she and Gabriela Dabrowski upset Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova, 7-5, 7-6(3).

"I can finally say this: We're world champions, and we rightfully deserve it," Fernandez said. "We worked really hard the past years, and I think every year, as I said before, we just keep improving. It's showing on the tennis court. It's showing in competition, individual competitions. Now it has shown in the biggest stage in the world.

"Coming here, it has given me a chance to represent my country at a highest level and to share the courts with these amazing women who can inspire me, who has inspired me, and who has motivated me to do better, to reach for higher levels in my own game."

Canada's best previous finish in the competition was the 1988 semifinals, but now, the country has won both of tennis' most storied team competitions in back-to-back years. (The men won Davis Cup for the first time in 2022.)

The 2023 champions also receive a record $2.4 million in prize money as part of the ITF’s Advantage All gender-equality program, and custom-designed Tory Burch blue jackets.

"I hope we inspire a lot of young girls and young kids to pick up the racquet and say, 'One day we could do this,'" captain Heidi El Tabakh, a former WTA pro who's the first female captain to lead a team to the Billie Jean King Cup since U.S.'s Kathy Rinaldi in 2017.

"We're one of the leading sports in Canada right now, and, you know, because of what these girls did, I hope that we continue to inspire and motivate young kids."