Australia tops Canada at ATP

John Millman got a late call to fill in for Nick Kyrgios and got Australia off to a winning start in the ATP against Canada on his home court in Brisbane.

Alex de Minaur secured the match when he rallied from a set and a break down to beat Denis Shapovalov 6-7 (6), 6-4, 6-2 at Pat Rafter Arena.

“I would love to take care of things a bit easier, but you kind of got to play the cards you’re dealt,” said de Minaur, who did a little dance on court to celebrate his win. “I had chances in the first set. I probably didn’t do too well mentally after that. I went through a little bit of a rough patch … but I managed to turn things around. So obviously very proud.”

Australia also won the doubles to complete a sweep and with that moved atop Group F in the new ATP Cup, a 24-team tournament that is kicking off the southern summer for the first time. Canada, which beat Australia in the Davis Cup quarterfinals in Madrid last November, was 1-1 after opening with victory over Greece.

Bulgaria beat Moldova to make it two wins from two in Group C, and Britain edged Belgium 2-1. Italy beat Norway 2-1 in Group D. The six group winners and the two best secondplace teams advance to the playoffs in Sydney next week.

Two days after launching his cash for aces plan to raise funds for the national wildfire recovery effort, Kyrgios pulled out of his scheduled match against Felix Auger-Alias

sime in Brisbane because of a sore back. No. 48ranked Millman stepped in to win 6-4, 6-2.

Kyrgios pledged to donate 200 Australian dollars ($140) for every ace he serves this month. He hit 20 in his opening win and promising more.

In Sydney, Grigor Dimitrov had a 6-2, 6-3 win over Radu Albot to secure Bulgaria an unbeatable 2-0 lead after Dimitar Kuzmanov beat Alexander

Cozbinov 6-1, 7-5. Albot led Moldova to a 6-4, 7-6 (4) win in the doubles to make the final margin 2-1.

Britain rebounded from its opening loss to Bulgaria by beating Belgium 2-1.