No joy for GB as Canada make history
There was Davis Cup heartache for Great Britain last night, as they bowed out at the semi-final stage to Spain in Madrid.
This time it was no surprise to see Andy Murray left on the bench after the performances of Kyle Edmund and Dan Evans in steering Britain to victory over Germany on Friday.
Edmund got Great Britain off to a flyer with a victory over Feliciano Lopez.
He had expected to face Carreno Busta, only for Spain to make a switch just five minutes before the start, when he was ruled out with a thigh injury.
Edmund, unfazed, powered to a 6-3 7-6 (3) win to put Leon Smith’s side within one rubber of the final.
He said afterwards: “In a way, it didn’t matter who I was playing, I was just concentrating on being me first and putting myself out there.
“And I dealt with it really well, I thought.”
However, Rafael Nadal levelled things up after he despatched Dan Evans 6-4 6-0 in the second rubber.
Nadal has not lost a Davis Cup singles match since his debut in 2004, winning 26-in-a-row before this one, so it was clear what a monumental task this was.
For nine games, Evans played about as well as he can, sticking with Nadal from the back of the court, serving well and coming forward intelligently.
But, once Nadal broke to win the first set, it was one-way traffic, setting up a deciding Doubles rubber.
The Spanish put Nadal into their line-up alongside Lopez to take on Neal Skupski and Jamie Murray.
The atmosphere in the Caja Magica ramped up another notch for the Doubles, and there was little to choose between the teams throughout.
After Skupski held a titanic service game at 1-2, the British pair were rarely threatened on their own delivery. But it was Spain who came out on top of two tie-breaks to win 7-6 (3) 7-6 (8).
The Brits had four set points in the second set, only for Nadal to come up with some inspired play and carry his country into a first final since 2011, where they will take on Canada.
The Canadians will play in the
Davis Cup final for the first time in the country’s history, after Denis Shapovalov and Vasek Pospisil combined to defeat Russia in the other semi-final.
After Singles victories for Andrey Rublev and Denis Shapovalov, Shapovalov and Pospisil teamed up to beat Rublev and Karen Khachanov 6-3 3-6 7-6 (5) in the deciding Doubles.
Shapovalov said: “In terms of what we’ve been doing this week, there’s really no words for it. I don’t think any of us expected that we could get this far.
“Obviously, we knew we have a great team. But you have to have a little bit of luck on your side and just play some ridiculous tennis and play at a ridiculous level. And I think we just absolutely played ridiculous tennis.
“I’m super-stoked to be in the final. It’s one of my dreams, to play in a Davis Cup final. And to be able to bring the country to this position, it’s just a dream come true.”