Marlborough Express

Nadal guides Spain into cup final

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knew the victory would come if we played with determinat­ion and hope.’’

Kyle Edmund gave Britain the lead with a 6-3 7-6 (3) win over Lopez in the first singles, then Nadal evened the semifinal by cruising past Daniel Evans 6-4 6-0 for his 28th straight Davis Cup singles victory. The top-ranked Nadal has won all six of his matches the past week.

In the doubles, Spain prevailed in both tiebreaker­s before a boisterous home crowd after Britain squandered four set points in the second set, including three in the tiebreaker. Spain converted on their second match point.

‘‘The crowd was amazing,’’

Nadal said. ‘‘It’s hard to describe the feeling of playing in a team competitio­n in front of our fans on this court. It was incredible.’’

Canada reached their maiden final in 106 years of playing the Davis Cup after Vasek Pospisil and Denis Shapovalov beat Karen Khachanov and Andrey Rublev 6-3 3-6 7-6 (5) in another decisive doubles match.

Rublev put the Russians ahead defeating Pospisil 6-4, 6-4 in the first singles, and Shapovalov evened the tie by downing Khachanov 6-4 4-6 6-4.

In the doubles, the Canadians trailed 3-0 in the third-set tiebreaker but rallied and converted their second match point. ‘‘Today was an incredible match,’’ Pospisil said.

‘‘I mean, the doubles, just with the buildup, obviously getting to this moment the last five days, I mean, it took a lot of emotions even just to get to this match.

‘‘It’s pretty incredible to make the finals, first time in history for Canada.’’

Pospisil and Shapovalov have played all of the matches for Canada, who won Group F by defeating former champions Italy and the United States, then eliminated another former champion Australia in the quarterfin­als. They had never previosuly beaten the US or Australia in the Davis Cup.

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