Former Australian tennis player, Todd Woodbridge, has vented his frustration at the fact that Canada have won the Davis Cup 2022.
Canada played superbly in the finals of the Davis Cup last week to deservedly win the tournament, but Woodbridge has point out that they did technically failed to qualify for the finals, instead being given a wildcard to compete.
It should be noted that wildcards are legitimate and ubiquitously used across the tour for other tournaments.
Canada was chosen as a replacement wild-card entry for the group stage of the Davis Cup Finals after the recent suspensions of the defending champion Russian Tennis Federation and Belarus Tennis Federation from ITF membership created a vacancy. Canada received the spot as the highest-ranked losing nation at this year's qualifiers.
Nonetheless, Woodbridge was unhappy at the developments.
"I'm going to sound like a sore loser, but I don't really care," Woodbridge said. "Canada shouldn't have even been in the final. They lost in April. They were given a second-chance wildcard to play in this event."
"You do not win the Davis Cup on a second chance; you have to try again next year. But they have a serious asterisk against their name, which is unfortunate. I probably assume that the ITF would have liked Australia to win the competition. If you're going to change rules mid-year, it doesn't hold the same values as it did once before."
Former world No. 1 Andy Roddick also believes Canada's inclusion didn't make them a legitimate contender at the time in a tweet that has since been deleted.
"Canada was given a wildcard into this round after losing to qualify for this stage ….. tough to consider them legitimate if they win this whole thing," Roddick wrote on Twitter.
Canada beat Australia in the final of the Davis Cup last weekend, with Auger-Aliassime and Shapovalov both winning their singles matches to take the tie, and the trophy.
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