Denis Shapovalov and Felix Auger-Aliassime delivered important wins at the 2024 Davis Cup Finals for the Canadian team, who won their opening tie against Argentina.
The Canadian team were huge favourites in this matchup because of the conditions. The tie was played on the hard courts and indoors, which suits them far better than the Argentine team, consisting of players who mostly perform well on clay.
In the first match of the day, Shapovalov took on Francisco Cerundolo, who had to win to give his country a chance in this tie. Cerundolo isn't a terrible player on a hard court, but he doesn't fancy playing indoors.
Certainly not as much as Shapovalov does, and it showed as the Canadian was on top in this match for much of the day. The Canadian didn't play his best tennis but was relatively lucky to face Cerundolo, who was far from his best level.
Neither player played the cleanest of matches as fans in Manchester saw an error parade from both sides, but ultimately, Shapovalov made fewer mistakes, and it worked out. A combined 96 unforced errors in 21 games shows what type of match it was, as Shapovalov cruised to a 7-5, 6-3 win.
The second match saw Auger-Aliassime play a solid match and deliver the second winning point for the Canadian team. Due to this being a group stage, the third match will be important as well, but overall, the tie was secured with these two singles wins.
Auger-Aliassime faced Sebastian Baez, a really solid player but, again, not a player who will enjoy his time on indoor hard courts. Auger-Aliassime, meanwhile, has a long track record of indoor success.
The opening set was very strong from Auger-Aliassime, who served well and was aggressive. On his own serve, Auger-Aliassime didn't face a single break point as he mostly cruised, while on return, he did create break chances and took two of those to win the opening set 6-3.
The second set was even more impressive from the Canadian. He remained aggressive but was much more controlled with it, as he didn't overhit as much as he did in the opening set.
He made 18 unforced errors in that opening set, which was a bit too many, but luckily for him, his opponent made 15, so it balanced out. In the second set, Auger-Aliassime was able to keep his number of unforced errors low while still hitting a decent number of winners.
Neither player was as aggressive as they were in the opening set. A 3-0 lead became a 4-0 lead for Auger-Aliassime in the second set, but Baez broke back to make it 4-1.
Still, it didn't change much in the match, as Auger-Aliassime was able to win the match comfortably in two sets. The final result was 6-3, 6-3 for the Canadian, as Canada secured their first win in this group stage.
It's a huge step to securing a spot in the knockout stages in Malaga later this year. Up next, they will have to play Finland before taking on home Great Britain.
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