Leylah Fernandez secured victory for Canada over hosts Spain at the BJK Cup Finals after winning a three-hour match which she described as a “bullfight”.
Fernandez, who lost to Britain’s Emma Raducanu in the 2021 US Open final, edged past Sara Sorribes Tormo 7-6 (10-8) 7-6 (9-7) in a tense battle.
Marina Stakusic put Canada 1-0 ahead in the best-of-three Group C tie with a 6-3 6-1 win over Rebeka Masarova.
Earlier, Italy beat France in Group D on day two of the women’s team event.
Martina Trevisan and Jasmine Paolini won their singles matches to give Italy an unassailable lead before France won the doubles match in a 2-1 defeat.
Twelve nations are taking part in the finals of the competition, which was formerly known as the Fed Cup, with teams split into four groups in the round-robin stage.
The group winners will advance to Saturday’s semi-finals before the champions are crowned after Sunday’s final in Seville.
The winners will receive prize money of $2.4m (£2.1m), which is part of an overall payment pot of $9.6m (£8.4m) – a record figure for the event which matches the cash awarded in the men’s equivalent Davis Cup.
Great Britain did not qualify after losing to France in April’s qualifying stage, instead going into a play-off tie against Sweden this weekend.
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