Boulter and Raducanu stun Canada to seal last-four spot

Katie Boulter strode to the baseline last night for one of the most important matches of her career with a considerable amount of pressure on her shoulders.

- Tumaini Carayol

Just a year ago and a little over 100 miles away, Leylah Fernandez had inspired her Canadian team to an unprecedented Billie Jean King Cup triumph in Seville. Now, in order to extend her team's supreme run, Boulter had to take the defending champion out.

In this special final week of the greatest season of her career, Boulter spectacularly rose to the occasion once more as she brushed Fernandez aside 6-2, 6-4 to lead Great Britain into the semi-finals of the BJK Cup with a commanding 2-0 victory over Canada.

As was the case during Friday's excellent 2-0 quarter-final win over Germany, Emma Raducanu set the bar sky high earlier in the day by delivering the first point for Britain with a brilliant performance as she held off a late surge from Rebecca Marino to close out a 6-0, 7-5 win.

"Emma makes it very easy to come out here and have a swing at it by starting 1-0 up," said Boulter. "Full credit to her for starting us off so well. I'm really proud of my performance today, I just wanted to come out here, have a go at the defending champs and hopefully get a big win. I'm really pleased with myself."