The Canadians Carol Zhao, Rebecca Marino and Gabriela Dabrowski were unable to lead Canada safely, Tuesday in Prague, to the Billie Jean King Cup, their country bending its back 3-0 in front of the Russians to see their chances of reach the semi-finals reduced to nothing.
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The formation of captain Sylvain Bruneau had defeated France 2 to 1 on Monday, but this shutout will not logically allow him to finish at the top of his group. The representatives of France will for their part have a lot to do to dislodge the Russians from the summit on Wednesday.
In the first duel of the day, Zhao lost to Russia’s Daria Kasatkina. The 26-year-old athlete, ranked 330th in the world, logically dropped the flag 6-3 and 6-1 ahead of the 28e world player. She had been called upon to replace Quebecer Françoise Abanda, who had to give up the clash due to a foot injury.
Then, in the second match of the day, Marino (147e) admitted defeat against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (16e) 6-4, 4-6 and 6-2. The loser got into trouble by conceding her serve in the first game of the last set and was never able to catch up.
Visibly out of breath, Marino was no more convincing during his doubles duel alongside Dabrowski. The Canadian duo lost 6-3 and 6-1 to Veronika Kudermetova and Liudmila Samsonova.
All of Canada’s duels were shown on TVA Sports and TVA Sports direct.