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Doubles star Gabriela Dabrowski of Ottawa teamed with Victoria Mboko of Toronto to lead Canada to victory over Denmark on Saturday in Group A of the Billie Jean King Cup playoffs in Monterrey, Mexico.
Dabrowski and Mboko, who played one match 20 minutes before the doubles match, defeated Danish pair Emma Kamper and Johanne Christine Svendsen 6-2, 6-4 in 59 minutes to win the best-of-three match 2-1.
The Canadians had four aces and only one double fault in the match, scoring 62 points out of 100 played. The Canadians converted three break points.
Dabrowski and Mboko will play Mexico on Sunday in a winner-take-all showdown at 5:00 pm ET, with the winner advancing to the 2026 qualifiers. Mexico beat Denmark 2-1 in the Group A playoffs on Friday.
The Canada-Mexico match will be broadcast live on CBC Sports and CBC Gem. MBoko needed one hour and 24 minutes to defeat Christina Svendsen 7-5, 6-3 to level the Group A play-off match at 1-1.
“I just wanted to take it point by point, take my time and just believe in myself,” Mboko said during an on-court interview about how she handled the pressure of Canada losing 1-0.
Mboko had 11 aces and won 86 percent of her points on her first serve. Her opponent had no aces, four double faults and converted just 63 percent of her first serves to score.
The Canadian won five of 12 break points, while Christina Svendsen won two of five break points and saved seven of 12.
Toronto's Cadence Brace lost a three-set heartbreaker to Rebecca Munk Mortensen in her opening match.
Brace, 20, won the first set 6-3, then lost the next two sets 7-6 (4), 7-6 (4) in a match that lasted three hours and 41 minutes.
Brace had two aces and six double faults in the match, while Munch Mortensen had four aces and eight double faults.
Both players were evenly matched across all statistical departments. The Danish player had a slight advantage in break points won (7 out of 14), break points saved (15 out of 23) and match points saved (9-2).
