Denis Shapovalov and
Felix Auger-Aliassime albeit playing in front of a half empty arena in Manchester, England sealed their first point for Canada at the
Davis Cup FInals. They defeated Argentina with a dead rubber to go in the doubles.
The tie is played on hard courts and indoors which heavily favours Canada compared to Argentina who mainly perform on clay. Shapovalov took on Francisco Cerundolo in the first match of the day. He cruised to a 7-5, 6-3 win. It was an error strewn display from both but Shapovalov's relative process on the surface proved to be a success.
Shapovalov hit less in a combined 96 unforced errors in 21 games as he took down Cerundolo who is ordinarily a clay court specialist. The second match saw Auger-Aliassime take down Sebastian Baez 6-3, 6-3. The opening set was stronger than Shapovalov's win as he didn't face a single break point and crafted break chances executing to seal the opener 6-3. He mostly cruised and went one away from the win.
He diminished his unforced error count in the second set performing even better. He went 4-0 up and despite Baez breaking back, it was still very much a simple win for Canada 6-3 in the second. Also in Manchester are Great Britain as well as Finland before taking on the other members of their group. The winners seal their spot in the knockout stages in Malaga later this year with the opening test passed.
But it was marred perhaps with minimal spectators inside the AO Arena with £10 tickets for some ties being offered out on ticketing services including for Great Britain's tie against Argentina on Friday. With other countries aside from the home hopes, it is a struggle to fill the stands especially in a country only following the sport for Wimbledon.