Serbia still heading to Kraljevo for Canada tie

Serbia’s home clash with Canada in the Billie Jean King Cup by BNP Paribas Play-offs will take place on an indoor hard court in Kraljevo.

The contest, which had originally been due to take place on 17-18 April 2020 before being postponed to February 5-6 2021 in response to COVID-19 health concerns, will now take place on 16-17 April 2021.

Kraljevo Sport Hall, a multi-purpose venue mostly used for handball and basketball, is becoming a fairly regular fixture for Serbia’s Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup ties.

The April tie will be the fourth clash between the two nations in the women’s world cup of tennis, with the Serbians winning two of their three previous meetings.

Canada won their most recent encounter on home soil in Montreal in 2014, when Eugenie Bouchard emphatically won both of her singles matches – for the loss of just four games – to seal the triumph after Aleksandra Wozniak’s battling three-set win over Vesna Dolonc in the opening match.

The Billie Jean King Cup play-offs see 16 nations – the eight losers from the 2020 Qualifiers and the eight promoted teams from regional Group I events – go head-to-head in February in a bid to earn a place in the Billie Jean King Cup Qualifiers in 2022. Those teams will then compete for a place at the prestigious Billie Jean King Cup Finals in 2022.

The Billie Jean King Cup is taking place throughout the 2020-2021 seasons due to the impact of COVID-19, with the competition set to return to its annual format in 2022.

Hosts Serbia, who have never won the women’s international team competition, will go into the tie in a rich vein of form, having won all three of their ties at the Group I event in Luxembourg in February, when they recorded wins over Luxembourg, Sweden and Slovenia. Their last loss came against a strong Great Britain side led by Johanna Konta at the Group I event in Bath in February 2019.

Canada, meanwhile, are looking to bounce back from defeats in their last two ties, having lost to Czech Republic in April 2019 and Switzerland in February’s Qualifiers.