No Azarenka for Belarus, as Canada goes with Françoise Abanda and Aleksandra Wozniak on opening day

To almost no one's surprise, Belarus's top player Victoria Azarenka will be a no-show for that nation's Fed Cup tie against Canada in Quebec City this weekend.

And that gives the Canadian team, also without its top player in Genie Bouchard, a puncher's chance to win the tie and advance to a playoff to earn a promotion into World Group I in April. They are currently in World Group II, which comprises the teams ranked 9-16 in the ITF world rankings.

Still, Belarus boasts two players ranked in the top 100 on the WTA Tour, something Canada cannot match.

But on the first day of singles Saturday, the nation will field two players with some good precedent for making magic happen when playing for their country.

The tie will open Saturday at noon (Sportsnet, jammed up with daytime hockey, is supposed to stream this on its website; it will be available in French on TVA) with Canadian No. 1 Françoise Abanda taking on Belarus No. 2 Aliaksandra Sasnovich.

The second singles will be Canadian No. 2 Aleksandra Wozniak against Belarus' No. 1, Olga Govortsova.

Here is the official press-release quote from Canadian captain Sylvain Bruneau:

On Sunday, the reverse singles will be played (either side can substitute for one of the players) and then the deciding doubles, if the tie is knotted at 2-2. If one team clinches with the third match, the fourth singles match will be skipped and they will just play the doubles, called a dead rubber because it doesn't affect the outcome of the tie.

Abanda, who turned 19 Friday, is a former highly-ranked junior who has struggled in her transition to the pro tour despite obvious talent. She's currently ranked No. 343 after being as high as No. 175 in Oct. 2014.

She has played just two tournaments this year, both in clay in Florida, after a communications snafu led to her not being entered in her first two events of the year. She qualified as a wild card in one of them, but is just 2-2 in main draw matches in 2016.

But last year, when Canada faced Romania in Montreal, Abanda punched way above her weight class and upset Irina Camelia Begu, a veteran ranked No. 34 in the world at the time, in three tough sets. She then gave another experienced Tour player, Alexandra Dulgheru, a battle before falling in three sets. Her opponent on Saturday is 21 and had a decent but not spectacular junior career (although it did include a win over Bouchard back in 2011). She has some solid wins on her resumé as a fledgling pro, though.

As for Wozniak, the 28-year-old is returning to Fed Cup play for the first time since 2014, when she won her opening singles matches for Canada in wins over Serbia in Montreal in February, and Slovakia in Quebec City in April.

After shoulder woes held her back for the better part of three seasons, the Blainville, Que. native had surgery in Oct. 2014 and missed nearly a year before returning to action.

It has been a work in progress; Wozniak's last tournament match win dates back to last September and her current ranking is No. 803, although she can enter a limited number of tournaments with an injury-protected ranking of No. 108. She lost in the first round of qualifying at the WTA Tour event in Hobart, Tasmania just before the Australian Open and, after missing the main draw by one spot, in the first round of qualifying there.

She and Govortsova are contemporaries; they met once in the juniors and on the main tour, Wozniak won their only meeting, on grass in Birmingham all the way back in 2009.

Fed Cup rookie Carol Zhao, who is bypassing her winter semester at Stanford and has turned pro, is probably the slightly better player on form. But it's thin soup; none of the Canadian players have been winning many matches so far in 2016. She is an option for the Sunday singles, and also is a very capable doubles player.

She also rocked her Fed Cup initiation Thursday night.