The historic Australian team, winner 28 times, and a team still without a salad bowl, Canada, will play the 2022 Davis Cup final this Sunday, led by two youngsters in full progress, Alex de Miñaur and Felix Auger-Aliassime, decisive in the semifinals.
After qualifying, on Friday, for Australia by defeating Croatia 2-1, Canada obtained the pass this Saturday with a victory for the same result against Italy and with Auger-Aliassime as the main executor, by winning his individual match and being re-fished for minutes later to play the doubles instead of Denis Shapovalov.
With the victory of Auger-Aliassime and Vasek Pospisil over Fabio Fognini and Matteo Berettini, who also entered the doubles at the last minute without having debuted before in Malaga, by 7-6 (2) and 7-5, the point was added to the who had previously won the world number 6 from Lorenzo Musetti (6-3 and 6-4) and Canada certified the pass to the final on Sunday against Australia.
The first individual match had been lost by Shapovalov against Lorenzo Sonego 7-6 (4), 6-7 (5) and 6-4.
Canada will play its second final, after the one it lost in Madrid in 2019 against Spain, in the premiere of the current Davis Cup format. On that occasion Auger-Aliassime lost his match against Roberto Bautista and Shapovalov also lost to Rafael Nadal.
The two finalists played their last finals against Spain, as Australia did in 2003, with a victory in Melbourne.
Canadians and Australians have faced each other ten times in this competition, with a clear 9-1 advantage for the ‘aussies’ in those antecedents.
After the 1-1 with which the program of the individual matches concluded, the captains took stock and put together a new scaffolding.
Frank Dancevic, who had announced Shapovalov-Pospisil for the doubles, the pairing that qualified him against Germany on Thursday, erased the former and replaced him with Auger-Aliassime.
Filippo Volandri, for his part, resorted to his secret letter.
Matteo Berrettini, who announced his withdrawal from the team due to injury last week, was not removed from the squad or replaced by another player. He traveled to Malaga awaiting a favorable evolution of his left foot injury. Volandri withdrew Simone Bolelli from the doubles today and paired Berrettini, a Davis player since 2019, with Fognini, who has been in the competition since 2008.
After exchanging a break in the first set (Pospisil and Berrettini gave it up), the tiebreaker game was purely Canadian, with Auger-Aliassime very successful in finding the gaps.
But Pospisil lost his serve again as soon as the second set began, with Fognini brilliant in covering the corridor. ‘Break’ and immediately ‘chrontrabreak’ for the Americans, and not a single more break point until 5-5 and 0-40 for Canada on Fognini’s serve. A return that Auger-Aliassime sent to the line, and that Berrettini let pass thinking he was leaving, put the maple leaf team in a position to serve to get into the final.
It wasn’t all done. The Italians worked a 15-40 deficit that Auger-Aliassime had to overcome with three unreturnable serves. A ball out of Berrettini did the rest.
The semifinal had started badly for Canada, with Shapovalov’s loss to Sonego in three sets in a match that was an endless roller coaster. The Italian was the one who best endured the curves.
The Canadian had thirteen break points and was only able to take advantage of one of them. Sonego, on the other hand, signed two of five and took the point with the necessary collaboration of ‘Shapo’, author of 23 unforced errors (19 his rival) and 35 ‘winners’, to 25 from the Italian.
In the first round both semifinalists exchanged early breaks -‘Shapo’ achieved it in the opening game- before playing a ‘tie-break’ of continuous alternatives and great difficulties for both when it came to maintaining their serve. Sonego took it 7-4.
After the gifts of the Canadian in the tenth game of the second, in which he wasted five set points, the partial was also decided in the tiebreaker. Shapovalov lost two serves when he found the net on a volley attempt and then launched a parallel to the corridor (2-3). But Sonego was in a hurry and from 5-2 he went to 5-7, with untimely errors such as two long balls and a double fault. The Canadian smelled fear and took advantage of it.
With Sonego at 2-1 in the third set, Shapovalov requested medical attention and was treated for problems in the right area of the back. He didn’t charge them in the next game, which he won with a recital of serves and winners.
In their private amusement park, the left-hander born in Tel Aviv and the right-hander from Turin reached one of the craziest moments in the seventh game of the third, with a string of masterful balls and amateur errors that led the former to have three breaking balls and the second to save them to the limit to maintain his service.
At 5-4, Shapovalov served to tie the set and what he did was lose it, putting the signature at the end of his performance with a double fault.
Later, Auger-Aliassime tied the tie for Canada by beating Lorenzo Musetti 6-3, 6-4 with solvency, another of the players called to be the protagonist of the coming seasons but who this Saturday in Malaga did not take the initiative in the marker in no time.
Auger-Aliassime is the player with the best ranking, sixth, of those who qualified for the final eight in Malaga. He has stretched his excellent season finale to Davis: three titles in October, semifinals at the Masters 1,000 in Paris and qualified for the ATP finals, where he won a match against Rafael Nadal.
Auger-Aliassime did not concede a break point throughout the game to his rival, who at some point opened his arms and looked at his bench, asking what he could do.
The Canadian, calm and confident throughout the match, relied on his serve (12 direct points and 91% effectiveness with the first) to keep Musetti under pressure, who only found solace in his magnificent backhand, the only blow that hit him. gave returns.
With two breaks, for 4-2 and 5-4, Auger-Aliassime had enough ammunition to win the game and tie the tie.
Then the captains went into action with their change of cards for the doubles. Canada did better and for the second time in its history they will choose to win the centennial team competition (13:00 CET).