The women’s tennis team of Australia is the first semi-finalist in this year’s edition of the Billie Jean Cup tournament, which is the unofficial women’s team world championship.
In group “B” in the British city of Glasgow, the Australians prevailed with a 3-0 victory over Belgium and recorded their second victory in the tournament. In the singles matches, Storm Sanders beat Alison Van Uytvanck by 2-0 (6:2, 6:2), and Ajla Tomljanovic was leading by 3:0 in the third set against Elise Mertens when the Belgian pulled out with an injury.
In the doubles match, Storm Sanders and Samantha Stosur won by 2-0 (6:4, 6:3) against Ysaline Bonaventure and Kirsten Flipkens.
So the final group standings put Australia in first place with 2 wins, ahead of Slovakia with a win and a loss and Belgium with no success.
A victory in the afternoon session of matches was also achieved by the Canadian team, which defeated Italy by 3-0. Bianca Andreescu gave the Canadian team a lead after defeating Elisabetta Cocciaretto by 2-0 (7:5, 6:3), after turning over from 2:5 in the first set. Leylah Annie Fernandez recorded one of the fastest wins in the history of the tournament after by 2-0 (6:0, 6:0) over Martina Trevisan in 45 minutes.
In doubles, Leylah Annie Fernandez and Gabriela Dabrowski achieved another express victory over Lucia Bronzetti and Jasmine Paolini by 2-0 (6:1, 6:1).
With its victory over Italy, Canada tied for first place in the group with the Swiss team. The two teams will show the second semifinalist from this group in a head-to-head clash on Friday.
