Canada swept hosts Spain 3-0 in the Billie Jean King Cup finals on Wednesday, to get off to a powerful begin in Group C.
Earlier, Italy scored a powerful 2-1 win over France in their opening Group D tie, successful each singles rubbers.
Canadian rookie Marina Stakusic, 18, beat Rebeka Masarova 6-3, 6-1 in a superb show, earlier than Leylah Fernandez edged Sara Sorribes 7-6 (10/8), 7-6 (9/7) to clinch the tie.
Stakusic, ranked 258th in the world, made mild work of Masarova, who’s sixty fifth for her first victory over a prime 100 participant.
“I feel amazing, I’m super happy with my performance today, I just tried to have great energy from the beginning and just show I belong here,” mentioned Stakusic.
“It’s my best victory for sure… the Canadian fans motivated me so much today, and the Spanish fans too, I like any noise. For me it was very motivating.”
As spectacular as Stakusic was, Masarova made 33 unforced errors and was removed from her greatest.
It left the strain on team-mate Sorribes’ shoulders and maybe that informed as she spurned three set factors in the tie-break earlier than Fernandez finally snatched an thrilling first set.
Sorribes did not convert two extra set factors in the second set tie-break and Fernandez triumphed.
“There are something that I need to work on but my Canadian team-mates and my Canadian cheering squad here did what they had to do, gave me positivity and helped me in the tough moments,” mentioned Fernandez.
“That was extremely tough, I tried to stay focused on just one point at a time.”
Eugenie Bouchard and Gabriela Dabrowski polished off the sweep with a 6-2, 7-5 doubles win over Sorribes and Masarova.
Canada face Poland on Thursday, whereas Italy are additionally in motion towards Germany.
France clawed again a degree in the doubles towards Italy, who additionally received each their singles rubbers.
Jasmine Paolini beat France’s Caroline Garcia 7-6 (8/6), 5-7, 6-4 in an exhilarating battle after Martina Trevisan beat Alize Cornet 2-6, 6-2, 6-2, incomes Italy the tie.
Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic then earned a 5-7, 6-2, 10-6 win over Trevisan and Elisabetta Cocciaretto.
Four-time winners Italy have now overwhelmed France in 5 of their final seven conferences, edging this battle between two of the 4 ever-present international locations on the event, together with Australia and Great Britain.
Trevisan got here again forcefully from a set all the way down to triumph in the primary singles rubber.
“I’m very happy to bring the point to my team, when I play for Italy, for my country, it’s always special,” she mentioned.
Cornet mentioned she was unwell in the second set.
“I was feeling pretty good before and during the first set,” she defined.
“Then my form dropped. I started to feel a bit dizzy, and I think she changed her strategy and she played much smarter from the second set.”
Paolini and world quantity 20 Garcia performed out a constant first set with only one break level, which the Italian saved, finally triumphing in the tie-break.
In the second set Garcia blew two set factors at 5-4 up however instantly recovered Paolini’s break and made no mistake on the third time of asking, forcing a decider.
However, it was Paolini who emerged victorious in a tense finale, successful the ultimate 4 video games to clinch victory.
