Canada puts its Billie Jean King Cup title on the line this week

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Canada is once again in the hunt for the two biggest titles in international team tennis as the women's Billie Jean King Cup Finals get underway this week in Malaga, Spain, followed by the men's Davis Cup Finals next week at the same indoor venue.

We'll have more on the Davis Cup before next Wednesday's quarterfinal between Canada and Germany. For today, let's focus on the Billie Jean King Cup.

For those who need a refresher, this event launched in 1963 as the Federation Cup, which was shortened to the Fed Cup before another rebranding in 2020 to honour King, the former women's tennis star and longtime equal-rights champion. Last year, Canada surprised everyone by winning the Cup for the first time.

Like the Davis Cup, which has been around since 1900, the Billie Jean King Cup bills itself as "the World Cup of tennis." A set of playoff matchups late last year determined the 16 teams for the qualifying round in April, and the winners of those eight matchups advanced to this week's 12-team Finals. They're joined by defending champion Canada, runner-up Italy, host Spain and the wild card Czech Republic, who all got to skip qualifying.

Canada, Italy and the Czechs also received first-round byes in the Finals, along with Australia. Canada's quarterfinal matchup will take place Sunday against the winner of Friday's contest between Germany and Great Britain. Italy will face Japan or Romania while Australia meets Slovakia or the United States and the Czechs get Spain or Poland. Those two teams were scheduled to open the Finals today, but the matchup was postponed due to a severe