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FLUSHING MEADOWS, New York – With Billie Jean King Cup captain Heidi el Tabakh expecting her second child this fall, longtime Canadian player and coach Marie-Ève Pelletier will captain the squad for a tie in Mexico in November.

Canada, which won the BJK Cup less than two years ago, lost its qualifying bid in Japan in April without a full squad. And so the team must now head to Monterrey, Mexico to play in a “qualifying for the qualifying” week to get the chance to try again in 2026.

They’ll have host Mexico and Denmark in their pool. Which is probably better than Romania and Japan (whom they faced in April). But not by a ton.

Canada to play in Mexico in November to avoid BJK Cup relegation

Pelletier at the US Open

Pelletier, 43, played Billie Jean King Cup (then called Fed Cup) from 2002 through 2012.

She surely deserved consideration to become the captain once Sylvain Bruneau was gone (and this is no knock on el Tabakh). She’s a former solid pro player, an experienced coach, an experienced BJK Cup competitor, and fluently bilingual.

Krejcikova for Mboko in US Open debut (and other women’s draw news)

Since retiring, though, she’s been pretty booked up – having two beautiful daughters. And also turning to TV commentary (full disclosure: we are colleagues at TVA Sports).

As a result of the temporary assignment, Pelletier is in New York helping out, supporting the Canadian women and taking a close look at their games.

It’s not helping that for the third day this week on Thursday, all three Canadian women are scheduled to be court at roughly the same time.

Another Canuck in the house: Brayden Schnur

Also in the house as the Canadians clustered on the practice courts Thursday was … Brayden Schnur.

Schnur, who’s still only 30, broke into the top 100 (No. 92) exactly this week, six years ago.

Comeback match shortlived as Brayden Schnur retires in Laval (updated)

But he hasn’t played in nearly two years. Out from April 2022 until he returned at a $25K ITF in Laval in July, 2023, he was competitive against some very good players (and even beat some of them), but his last mach was in October of that year.

Schnur has been coaching Canadian Carol Zhao since the Granby ITF tournament this summer.

He also got engaged to the gorgeous Addy Townsend, a track-and-field athlete, in June.