The group stage of Davis Cup Finals will take place in September, where defending champions Canada will play in Italy, but they will be without Felix Auger-Aliassime and Milos Raonic.
It's going to be a very interesting group in Italy as the defending champions are coming without much star power. They produced a rather super effort last year to win the event though their win wasn't without controversy as it was considered invalid by many.
In any case, it was Felix Auger-Aliassime who led the country as the best player, but he won't be making a return for this year's group stage. The Canadian hasn't been playing that well recently, losing a lot of matches and dealing with injuries earlier in the year.
He finally snapped his losing streak in Cincinnati by beating Matteo Berrettini so he would have obviously been very important. It's unclear why he's missing the event though many pointed out that he's prioritizing the Laver Cup the following week as it will be held in Vancouver.
Another player that is rumoured to get an invite to the Laver Cup is Milos Raonic after the Canadian showed a decent level in Toronto recently. He, too, is missing from the Davis Cup team, where he would have been a calming veteran presence.
Instead of those household names, we have a couple of youngsters such as Alexis Galarneau and Gabriel Diallo. The latter recently had a super solid week in Toronto and is on the cusp of making a Top 100 debut.
Besides them, we'll see Denis Shapovalov, who was part of the winning team last year, as well as veteran and designated doubles player Vasek Pospisil. It's not a bad team on paper by any means, but it would have certainly been better with the participation of both Raonic and Auger-Alisasime.
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