La Jornada – Shapovalov, the saved card in the first ATP Cup won by Canada

Sydney Canada won its first ATP Cup against Spain, thus succeeding Russia in the record for this tennis competition, after the victories of Felix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov in their singles matches.

Auger Aliassime, 21 and world 11th, gave Canada the final point by beating Roberto Bautista (19) 7-6 (7/3), 6-3. A little earlier, Shapovalov (14th) had done the same against Pablo Carreno (20) 6-4, 6-3. In this way, disagreement in the doubles match was not necessary.

“If it wasn’t for Denis, we wouldn’t have been here for the last two days. I would like to congratulate you. It was unbelievable,” said Auger-Aliassime. “He lost the last few times to Carreno and today he won straight sets. It wasn’t easy, but the way he was able to play he won well, so he has all the credit,” he said, referring to the recent meetings between Karino and Shapovalov.

Canada, who lost their first four matches of the tournament, ended up top of their group, ahead of the UK led by Cameron Nouri, Germany led by Alexander Zverev and the USA to advance to the semi-finals where they beat Russia led by Daniil Medvedev.

It was the Canadians’ first ATP Cup title, after Serbia beat Spain in the 2020 final, and Russia won the 2021 edition.

A promising young Auger-Aliassime, still searching for his first singles title on the track, this week secured a convincing victory over Zverev, the third-placed in the world.

Despite being overtaken on Saturday by Medvedev, second in the world, Auger-Aliassime knew how to rebuild the next day. Bautista dominated at the start of the confrontation, and ended up taking the first set in tie breaker After nearly an hour and a half of fighting.

He used after his powerful serve (nine aces), and put pressure on Bautista, who saw how the Canadian was placed 5-3 and with serve in the last game, which concluded with the ball of the second game.

Against the Asturian Karino, Shapovalov, 22, also provided evidence of the resistance by saving eight balls from rest time Throughout the game to end prevailing in an hour and 40 minutes.

Spain, denied Rafael Nadal, who won the Melbourne prep group for the Australian Open yesterday, started as the favorite after winning all their singles duels this week, but they are once again on the cusp of success in this team competition, as it already happened in 2020 against Serbia.