Tennis Canada – The World Group II playoff tie will be played in Slovakia on April 16 and 17

Montreal, February 9, 2016 – The International Tennis Federation (ITF) announced Tuesday that Canada will play Slovakia in a Fed Cup by BNP Paribas World Group II playoff tie on April 16 and 17, 2016. The tie will be played in Slovakia. Choice of surface, venue, and team nominations will be decided at a later date.

“Our last loss was a heartbreaker, but we have to move forward and begin preparing for our next challenge. We know the Slovakians well having played them in 2014,” said Sylvain Bruneau, captain of the Canadian Fed Cup team. “We have been lucky to play so many home ties since 2014, but now we are going back on the road.”

Canada was relegated to a World Group II playoff tie after falling to Belarus 3-2 this past weekend in Quebec City. The Canadian team consisted of Françoise Abanda (Montreal, QC), Gabriela Dabrowski (Ottawa, ON), Aleksandra Wozniak (Blainville, QC), and Carol Zhao (Richmond Hill, ON). For their part, Slovakia was defeated by Australia this weekend. The team was made up of Anna Karolina Schmiedlova, Dominika Cibulkova, Daniela Hantuchova, and Jana Cepelova.

This will be the third meeting between Slovakia and Canada in Fed Cup. During their last meeting in 2014, Canada defeated the Slovaks 3-1 at PEPS on the campus of Laval University in Quebec City. 

Canada currently sits at no. 14 on the Fed Cup rankings while Slovakia is no. 17. 

WORLD GROUP II PLAYOFF TIES
April 16-17, 2016

SERBIA vs. Belgium
Slovakia vs. CANADA
POLAND vs. Chinese Taipei
Ukraine vs. ARGENTINA

The host nations are listed first and the seeded countries are in capitals.

The four winning nations will qualify for World Group II in 2017 while the four losing nations will be relegated to the zonal group I events.
 
About Fed Cup by BNP Paribas

Fed Cup by BNP Paribas is the World Cup of Tennis. It is the largest annual international team competition in women’s sport, with 101 nations entered in 2016. The competition is 53 years old having been founded in 1963. The title sponsor is BNP Paribas, the Official Bank of Fed Cup. International sponsors are Rolex (Official Timekeeper), Adecco (Official HR Sponsor) and Betway (Official Betting Sponsor). beIN SPORTS is the Official Global Media Rights Partner. Follow all the action on www.fedcup.com, www.fedcup.com/es,www.twitter.com/fedcup, www.facebook.com/FedCup, www.Weibo.com/fedcupofficial and www.fedcup.tv.

 
About Tennis Canada

Founded in 1890, Tennis Canada is a non-profit, national sport association with a mission to lead the growth of tennis in Canada and a vision to become a world-leading tennis nation. We value teamwork, passion, integrity, innovation and excellence. Tennis Canada owns and operates the premier Rogers Cup presented by National Bank WTA and ATP World Tour events, 10 professional ITF sanctioned events and financially supports 12 other professional tournaments in Canada. Tennis Canada operates junior national training centres/programs in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. Tennis Canada is a proud member of the International Tennis Federation, the Canadian Olympic Committee, the Canadian Paralympic Committee and the International Wheelchair Tennis Association, and serves to administer, sponsor and select the teams for Davis Cup, Fed Cup, the Olympic and Paralympic Games and all wheelchair, junior and senior national teams. Tennis Canada invests its surplus into tennis development. For more information on Tennis Canada please visit our Web site at: www.tenniscanada.com and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

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