This Canada team is stronger than 2015 Czech side: Bhupathi

new delhi — Davis Cup captain Mahesh Bhupathi says the Canada team, which has ‘future star’ Denis Shapovalov in the line-up, is stronger than the Czech Republic side to which India had lost in the playoffs stage in 2015.

The Indian team, which had a week-long training camp in New York before reaching Edmonton, is set to make a fourth consecutive attempt to qualify for the elite World Group.

After dominating the Asia/ Oceania zone, India lost to tennis power-houses Serbia (2014), Czech Republic (2015) and Rafael Nadal-led Spain (2016) at the World Group Play-off stage in recent years.

Canada have named world number 51 Shapovalov, who reached the US Open fourth round, Vasek Pospisil (82) along with seasoned Daniel Nestor (43 in doubles) and Brayden Schnur (202) for the playoff tie, starting Friday.

“Canada is a quality team but of course we are here because we earned the chance to play them. I personally think they are a stronger team than the Czechs when they came to India,” Bhupathi said.

Shapovalov has made quite a splash with his performance in the last few weeks. Before making the US Open fourth round as a qualifier, the 18-year-old had shocked Nadal en route the semi-finals of the Montreal Masters.

The Czechs had travelled to India with Jiri Vesely (then world number 40 and now 59) and Lukas Rosol (then world number 85) as the main singles players. — PTI