The Canadian Davis Cup team, with Vernon鈥檚 Vasek Pospisil as its highest-ranked player, dropped its opening Group B tie of the Davis Cup by Rakuten Finals on Thursday with a 3-0 loss to Sweden at Madrid Arena in Madrid, Spain.
Canada sent Toronto鈥檚 Steven Diez out for the first single鈥檚 match against Elias Ymer. After jumping out to a 4-1 opening set lead, Diez won only three games the rest of the way, falling 6-4, 6-2.
Pospisil went into the second singles match knowing only a victory would keep Canada in the tie. Against Mikael Ymer, brother of Elias, Pospisil found points difficult to come by on his second serve, while his opponent had an 80 per cent success rate.
Ymer broke Pospisil early in the first set and remained composed to see it out at 6-4. The second set was finely poised and evenly matched. Pospisil crafted a break point opportunity which would have seen him take a 4-2 lead. Instead, Ymer held and then produced a break of his own to take control. Again, the Swede showed maturity beyond his years to withstand pressure from Pospisil and close out the second set 6-4.
鈥淚 think today I didn鈥檛 play badly, but my opponent played well and I didn鈥檛 play as well as I could have,鈥� Pospisil said to Tennis Canada in his post-match press conference. 鈥淥n any given day you can play up to your standards, a little bit above them or below, and today I played a guy that was playing really well and I just maybe didn鈥檛 execute the way that I鈥檇 like to.鈥�
Canada captain Frank Dancevic made a change to his doubles line-up, switching out Diez for Brayden Schnur (Pickering, Ont.) to partner Pospisil, prior to the match. Facing Swedish pairing Andre Goransson and Robert Lindstedt, the first set began with consecutive breaks and there were two more 鈥� one apiece 鈥� later, but it finished all square, meaning a tiebreak was required to separate the teams. Sweden came out on top, taking the first set 7-6(5).
In the second set, the match remained balanced with neither side giving an inch. Eventually, the Swedish team made a breakthrough when Canada dropped their serve to make it 4-5. Goransson and Lindstedt made no mistake in serving out the match to cap a 3-0 victory in the tie.
鈥淭hey were tough matches today for the boys,鈥� Dancevic said. 鈥淚t was a rough day going down 3-0 but we have our heads up. All the matches were really close and the guys actually came out playing really well in doubles so we鈥檙e looking forward to regrouping and getting ready for the Kazakhstan matches.鈥�
The Canadian Davis Cup team鈥檚 next Group B tie is against Kazakhstan on Sunday (1:00 a.m. Pacific) and will be broadcast live in Canada in English on Sportsnet One.
Canada is playing the Davis Cup without two of its best singles players, Felix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov, who are recovering from injuries and fatigue.
Pospisil helped guide Canada to the Davis Cup final in 2019 against the eventual champions from Spain.
READ MORE: Vernon鈥檚 Vasek Pospisil named B.C.鈥檚 Athlete of the Year
READ MORE: Spain wins Davis Cup; Vernon鈥檚 Vasek Pospisil held out of singles play
roger@vernonmorningstar.com
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