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History has officially been made in the 2022 Davis Cup. Canada has been victorious in the most exciting team event of the year. And the two guys that proved to be superstars for the finals included Shapovalov as well as Auger-Aliassime. In fact, thanks to these players Canada didn’t even need to play the doubles against Australia.
This achievement is all the more impressive when you consider that Canada won two of the three playoff matches in the deciding rubber. Just in case you needed a refresher, Canada beat Germany in the quarters by a final score of 2-1, followed by Italy by a final score of 2-1 as well. Because of that, I can’t discuss Canada’s achievements without mentioning Vasek Pospisil.
This veteran was pivotal in both doubles matches against Germany and Italy. He teamed up with Shapovalov to grab the decider against Germany. And Pospisil replicated this success by snatching the decider against Italy when partnering Auger-Aliassime. So clearly, he was an important part of Canada’s success too.
As for the final against the mighty Aussies, it was all about Auger-Aliassime and Shapovalov. Let me take you through the specifics right now.
Canada Makes It a First Davis Cup Title – The Story of These Deserved Winners
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I’ve got to be honest here, having watched the Aussies in previous playoff rounds, I felt that they could take Canada in the final. Guys like Thompson, Kokkinakis, and de Minaur had been tremendous in previous rounds. Yet it wasn’t meant to be in the final against Canada. Here’s how things played out in yesterday’s thriller:
Shapovalov vs Kokkinakis
The first singles match of the 2022 Davis Cup finals saw Shapovalov take on Kokkinakis. Of course, Shapovalov has historically been a more successful singles player than Kokkinakis. So really, people were expecting him to pull through. But anything is possible when you get to the Davis Cup finals. The emotions were running high for both, yet Shapovalov pulled off some trademark winners to beat Kokkinakis by a final score of 6-2, 6-4.
For me, the biggest difference between the two was Shapovalov’s ability to neutralize the Kokkinakis serve. In total, he managed to break the Australian four times. And since Kokkinakis is very much dependent on a big serve to keep the games ticking over, the writing was on the wall from early on in this match.
But still, credit to Shapovalov for putting in a very mature and high-class performance.
Auger-Aliassime vs de Minaur
Since Shapovalov had captured the opener against Kokkinakis, Auger-Aliassime was given the unique situation to win the Davis Cup for Canada. All he had to do was squeeze past Alex de Minaur and the title was theirs. And as you already know, that’s exactly what he was able to do. The final score in this one was 6-3, 6-4, and Auger-Aliassime hit a total of 22 winners during the match.
Many of these came on the forehand wing, which he used to great effect to put the relentless Aussie onto the back foot throughout. The scenes when he won were pretty awesome too. And this wraps up a great season for Auger-Aliassime overall.
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