Canada is suddenly a team tennis power

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When Canada won the Davis Cup last year, it felt like catching lightning in a bottle.

That unexpected victory was, in many ways, the product of an incredible hot streak by one player. Felix Auger-Aliassime, who'd recently won three consecutive tournaments on the ATP Tour, upset world No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz in the Davis Cup group stage and then mowed through his three knockout-round opponents without dropping a set. Denis Shapovalov and Vasek Pospisil contributed too, but it seemed like mostly a one-man show — and not a particularly repeatable one.

Fast-forward a year, and Canada's team tennis success doesn't feel like such a fluke anymore.

On Sunday in Spain, Canada pulled off another surprise, capturing the women's Billie Jean King Cup for the first time. Though not as ancient as the 123-year-old Davis Cup, this one has been around (under different names) for 60 years. In that time, Canada had reached the semifinals just once before (way back in 1988) and never made the final.

The outlook for this one didn't seem very promising after a difficult season for Canada's singles players on the WTA Tour. Leylah Fernandez, two years removed from her trip to the U.S. Open final, had fallen to 35th in the world rankings. And she was easily the top singles player on a squad with No. 176 Rebecca Marino, No. 258 Marina Stakusic and No. 276 Eugenie Bouchard (No. 91 Bianca Andreescu was out with a back injury).

But some kind of chemical reaction seemed to occur when these women came together for the 12-team championship round in Spain, where countries squared off in best-of-three