More energetic than world No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz, Félix Auger-Aliassime led Canada to a 2-1 win over Spain on Friday in Valencia in the Davis Cup Finals round robin .
Auger-Aliassime triumphed 6-7 (3), 6-4 and 6-2 once morest the young Spaniard in the followingnoon.
A few hours later, the Montrealer and his compatriot Vasek Pospisil took the honors of a duel in double face with Marcel Granollers and Pedro Martinez to seal the outcome of the meeting.
In Auger-Aliassime’s first victory of the day, the defining moment was a 12-minute game in which the recent US Open champion dropped no less than five break points in the third set.
Failing to return to even serve, he then visibly slowed down. “FAA” (13th) added a second break and then kept control with the balls in hand to finish the job.
This is a first victory once morest a first racket in the world for Auger-Aliassime. On his first occasion, earlier this year in Rome, he bowed to Novak Djokovic.
This long battle of 2 h 55 min might have been concluded much faster. The Quebecer had indeed dropped a break point that would have given him the first set, at 5-6. He then lost his last three points on serve in the tiebreaker to give his opponent the first set.
A similar situation arose during the next engagement and this time the Maple Leaf representative did not miss his chance. He smashed Alcaraz to make it 5-4, then grabbed the set in five short service rallies.
An unexpected victory in doubles Crossing swords once morest the rested pair of Granollers and Martinez, the representatives of the maple leaf had to work hard to win 4-6, 6-4 and 7-5 and offer victory to Canada. Pospisil and “FAA” notably erased a 5-3 delay in the final round.
They were just two points from giving up when they rolled up their sleeves to win the next four games.
In the second set, the Canadians got their first break of service of the duel at the most opportune moment, when they were leading 5-4. It was finally in 2 h 7 min that Pospisil and Auger-Aliassime closed the debate.
Pospisil s’incline
In the first match of the day, Pospisil were unable to follow their momentum from the opening set once morest Roberto Bautista Agut, losing in straight sets 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.
Occupying 141e world rank, Pospisil a vu Bautista Agut (21e) take off under the cheers of a home crowd in the second set, despite an 11-2 dominance in aces.
The winner made three breaks in 12 occasions during the 2h11 min match.
The Canadian committed 33 unforced errors, compared to 13 for his opponent.
Having won two of the three games in its duel once morest South Korea on Tuesday, Canada will face Serbia – on TVA Sports – to end the tournament on Saturday. He will have to finish among the top two in the Group B standings in order to qualify for the Finals scheduled for November 21-27.
