Team Canada has qualified for the 2019 Davis Cup in Madrid, Spain. This past weekend in Bratislava, Slovakia, Canada won three of five matches, to beat Slovakia in exciting Davis Cup qualifying action.
On Friday, Denis Shapovalov of Toronto, Ontario opened the weekend with an impressive straight set win over Filip Horansky of Slovakia. In the 6-4, 7-5 win, Shapovalov broke Horansky in each set, and won nine more points than Horansky (67 compared to 58).
The next two matches went Slovakia’s way. On Friday, Martin Klizan, who is a clay court specialist, beat Felix Auger-Aliassime of Montreal, Quebec 7-5, 6-3 and then then teamed up with Filip Polasek, to beat Shapovalov and Auger-Aliassime 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 in a tight three set doubles match.
With Canada in a do-or-die situation, Shapovalov and Auger-Aliassime came away with two great singles performances on Saturday. Shapovalov would beat Klizan 7-6, 6-4 to tie the series at two matches apiece. Auger-Aliassime then gave Canada the series win with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Norbert Gombos of Slovakia.
In Shapovalov’s win over Klizan, Shapovalov’s serve was working very well, as he had six aces compared to Klizan’s zero. Shapovalov also dominated the tiebreak, as he won 7-4. He also showed great composure in the tiebreak, by taking control after losing the first point with a double fault. Auger-Aliassime, like Shapovalov in the first match, was able to break his opponent in each set. Auger-Aliassime also won 10 more points than Gombos (62 compared to 52) and had three more aces (six compared to three).
Canada is one of 18 nations that has qualified for the 2019 Davis Cup. The others are Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Netherlands, Russia, Serbia, Spain and the United States.
