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Canada won its first trophy in the event on Sunday, beating Australia 2-0 thanks to singles victories by Denis Shapovalov and Felix Auger-Aliassime in Malaga. Shapovalov defeated Thanasi Kokkinakis (6-2, 6-4) and Auger-Aliassime provided the winning point by defeating Alex de Minaur (6-3, 6-4).
Canada had to wait 109 years, since the first edition of the Davis Cup, to lift its first Silver Saladier: Sunday in Malaga, Denis Shapovalov and Felix Auger-Aliassime won both singles in the final against Australia and Canada became the world tennis champion. “We grew up together in Canada since we were 7-8 years old dreaming of playing the biggest tournaments, winning these types of matches and winning the Davis Cup,” commented Auger-Aliassime (6th in the world) just after winning the point by beating Alex de Minaur (24th) 6-3, 6-4. Before him, Shapovalov (18th) logically beat Thanasi Kokkinakis (95th) 6-2, 6-4.
Canada has come a long way since it was eliminated 4-0 by the Netherlands in March during the qualifiers. But the exclusion of Russia, title holder, because of the conflict in Ukraine, left a place: Serbia should have benefited, but having previously received an invitation to the 2022 finals, it is Canada who was drafted. The Canadians finished second in Group B behind Spain in September, before eliminating Germany in the quarter-finals (2-1) and Italy in the semis (2-1). In the final, doubles did not need to be played after the clear Canadian victories in singles.
“GREAT MOMENT”
“This is really a great moment, for me and for the country,” Auger-Aliassime savored. Finalists in 2019 in Madrid for the first edition of the new formula of the national team competition, the Canadians had been beaten by Spain led by a Rafael Nadal on a mission. This time, Canada became the 16th nation to win the Davis Cup.
In 2015, Canada had already won the junior Davis Cup, already with FAA and Shapovalov. “We’re getting better every year, we’re getting more and more ready for these tough moments. We have great memories together in junior Davis Cup and we are happy to have won the real thing,” said Auger-Alissime. “Since the juniors, we were dreaming about it… We saw Vasek (Pospisil), Milos (Raonic), Daniel (Nestor) playing and we wanted to imitate them, to be part of the team. So today, it’s unreal,” confirmed Shapovalov.
FAA IN THE BIG LEAGUES
And for captain Franck Dancevic’s men, including veteran Vasek Pospisil who was playing in his 12th Davis Cup since 2008, the Silver Saladier crowns a banner year that began in January in Australia with the ATP Cup title, the fledgling counterpart to the venerable International Tennis Federation (ITF) competition.
Auger-Aliassime won his fifth title (including his first four on the ATP circuit, in Rotterdam, Florence, Antwerp and Basel) at the end of a season that saw him take his place in the very big league. At 22 years old, FAA finished 6th in the world after a season that started with a ranking of 11th. He even fell to No. 13 in September after being eliminated in the second round of the US Open, before going on a run of 16 wins and three titles in as many weeks that ended in the semifinals of the Paris Masters 1000.
