With a brilliant Felix Auger-Aliassine, Canada surpassed Australia and won the Davis Cup for the first time

Felix Auger-Aliasine had an amazing season finale. In the last month of activity in the ATP circuit He played five tournaments, won three (in consecutive weeks he was crowned in the 250m in Florence and Antwerp and the 500m in Basel), reached the semi-finals of the Paris Masters 1000 and played in the “Masters Tournament” for the first time of Turin. He thus climbed to sixth place in the standings, his best position. And this Sunday he closed 2022 with a dream title: he beat 6-3 and 6-4 the Alex DeMinau (24), sealed the victory of Canada at the end of Davis Cup in view of Australia and gave his country his first silver salad bowl.

Shortly before, in the first duel of the series for the title, in Malaga, Denis Shapovalov18th in the world, he had defeated 6-2 and 6-4 at Thanasi Kokkinakis (95°) and had given the Americans the initial advantage.

Canada thus became the sixteenth country to win the Davis Cup and joined the list of champions at the top United States of America, with 32 titles. A list that has not added a new name after the unforgettable consecration of Argentina in 2016.

Australiawith 28, they are the second most successful team in the competition, but the weight of their glorious history in the competition did nothing for the success of the two Canadians.

Auger-Aliassime arrived in Malaga as the best-placed player of the eight teams in the Finals and continued the great moment he had enjoyed on the professional circuit at the José María Martín Carpena Sports Hallwhere he signed a seamless performance.

In the quarterfinals, she took her single point against Oscar Ottothe best ranked of Germany in the tournament, and assisted in a 2-1 win against the Germans.

He got rid of solvency in the semifinals of Lorenzo Musettoanother of the young promises who is starting to get noticed, with which to clash Italy that Canada had started from behind, and returned to the field half an hour later to replace Shapovalov in the doubles, partnering with Vasek Pospisil and defeated Fabio Fognini Y Matthew Berrettini in deciding doubles.

And in the final he didn’t give a chance to De Miñaur. The 22-year-old North American tripled his opponent’s winning shots (16 against 5), broke serve once in each set (5-3 in the first and 2-1 in the second) and gave the audience a demonstration of his dexterous, sharp, accurate and deadly.

His triumph sparked Canadian celebrations, which began after Shapovalov’s victory. The one born in Israel – his family arrived in Canada when he was just 9 months old – redeemed himself in the final, after losing his two singles in the previous rounds: against Jan Lennard Struff in the quarterfinals -where he had been part of the winning double with Pospisil- and against Lorenzo Soneo in the semifinals.

But against Kokkinakis he was able to bring out his best version. He opened the game with two consecutive breaks and went 4-0 ahead. Confident, everything went well for him and in 33 minutes he had the set in his pocket.

The frustrated Aussie lost his temper and started to show his anger more and more. And Shapovalov, very concentrated, took advantage of his powerful left foot to also put the second set on track when he climbed to 4-2 in the standings. He didn’t close it so easily, because when he was serving 5-2 to seal the win, he missed his only break of the afternoon. But he didn’t despair and immediately afterwards he was able to celebrate and give his country the first point.

Canada thus won the first title in its long history in Davis, a competition it played for the first time in 1913. That year it reached the semifinals, as in 2013. But it had to wait until 2019 to play its first final , who lost to Spain in Madrid, with a team also led by Auger-Aliassime and Shapovalov.

Last year he finished third in group B of the Final Phase, behind kazakhstan Y Sweden. Therefore, he had not qualified for the finals of this 2022 and had to play the Qualifiers in March, in which they lost 4-0 against Holland in The Hague.

But a couple of weeks after that painful defeat, The ITF assigned him a joker card for the appointment in Malaga, to fill the post that had been vacated Russiachampion in 2021 and excluded from all domestic competitions this season due to the invasion of Ukraine. And the Canadians have not missed the opportunity.

“Emotions are hard to describe,” said Auger-Aliassime during the celebrations. “Denis and I grew up together, dreaming of these kinds of places, dreaming of winning the Davis Cup. It’s a great moment for me and for the country.”