After the snow showers that swooped across Ottawa on Thursday afternoon after the draw ceremony at the House of Parliament, the first day of the Canada-GB Davis Cup tie was greeted by a crisp sunny winter afternoon in Ottawa, with the relatively “mild” temperature of – 8C. The temperature inside the TD Place, however, was much more comfortable and kept increasing as the day progressed, because as Friday turned into the weekend more and more people arrived to take part to the action, but also (or I should say above all) because local Davis hero Vasek Pospisil pulled of a much-needed upset defeating the GB n.2 Kyle Edmund, currently sitting almost 90 spots above him in the ATP ranking.
The day didn’t start too well for the picturesque chanting “red maple leaf” fans, as teenage “debutant” Denis Shapovalov (n.246) was schooled by Britain’s best-ranked players (after Andy Murray) Daniel Evans (n.45), who recently reached the Round of 16 at the Australian Open and came within one point of beating eventual champion Stan Wawrinka at last year’s US Open. The two had played a very tight 3-set match in 2016 at Challenger level in Drummondville, Canada, but on the fast indoor court of Ottawa nerves played a role in Shapovalov 6-3, 6-3, 6-4 defeat in 1h50’. The young Canadian never managed to find range and rhythm on Evans’ serve, which was only threatened twice all afternoon, both times on 2-2 in the second set, when the Brit showed guts and confidence serving an ace and volleying a passing shot on the two most delicate points of the match. “He played better the big point, that was the difference between us – said Shapovalov after the match, confirming he didn’t think he played badly in general but was outplayed by his opponent at crucial junctures in the match. “He plays with great confidence because he has been playing and winning a lot the past few weeks – continued Shapovalov – while I don’t have enough match under my belt this season to be that confident”.
The Tel Aviv-born Canadian 17-year-old conceded a break on the first and last game of the first set, on the one following the two break points in the second and on the final game of the match in the third. He stuck to his flamboyant high-risk attacking game, but racked up 39 unforced errors at the end of the match when he was uncappable of hurting Evans on his slice backhand as his opponent often found slow dipping passing shots exposing his slowness in approaching the net.
Luckily for the home crowd, Vasek Pospisil came to level the tie with a solid performance to easily rout an evanescent Kyle Edmund, who curiously ended up with the same number of unforced errors as Shapovalov (39) but displayed a much more passive attitude that led him to run around in rallies well behind the baseline. “My tennis was dismal today – said Edmund in the after-match press-conference with an extremely subdued, almost teary voice – I need to do more, this is not enough”.
Despite availing himself of a Medical Timeout after just five games to have his knee massaged (“It’s a pain that’s been bothering me all week, but it’s under control, there are no risks for the doubles” said Pospisil, who is planning to play three matches in three days in this tie), he held a tough service game at 4-4 and went on to win eight of the following nine games to take a 2-set-to-love lead.
In the third set there were no break points, but the resulting tie-break was a solo for the Canadian who sprinted from 2-2 to 6-2 and then sealed a 6-4, 6-1, 7-6 (3) comprehensive win to ensure at least one live rubber on Sunday.
There should be no surprise when teams will cross swords on Saturday at 1pm ET for the doubles: Pospisil should team up with 44-year-old Daniel Nestor, who celebrates his 50th Davis Cup tie this weekend, while Great Britain should see specialists Jamie Murray and Dominic Inglot take to the court. Reverse singles on Sunday will begin at noon ET, with the start time anticipated to try and avoid possible overlaps with the NFL SuperBowl, the most important sporting event of the year in North America, scheduled for 6.30pm ET on Sunday evening.
