Sydney, Jan. 8 (BNA): Denis Shapovalov and Felix Auger-Aliassime won the crucial doubles event against defending champions Russia to lead Canada to the ATP Cup final on Saturday.
The Canadians beat Russian duo Daniil Medvedev and Roman Sviulin 4-6 7-5 10-7 in an excellent tiebreak final set to tie 2-1 and play Sunday’s final in the $10 million team event against Spain, according to Reuters. mentioned.
After Shapovalov and Medvedev won their singles matches, all four players returned to the Ken Rosewall Arena for the doubles.
The Russians seemed to have the upper hand before Canada tied the match with a late break in the second set and then took on the momentum in the super tiebreak, which is played to 10 points instead of seven.
“Felix played unbelievably in the first half and then also in the tiebreak, which made them play a lot. He was fantastic,” Shapovalov said. “We kept fighting. We have great chemistry and team spirit, so it helped us a lot.”
Earlier, world number two Medvedev trounced Auger Aliasim 6-4 6-0 to keep Russia’s hopes of defending the ATP Cup title, sending the semi-final match to the decider doubles.
Denis Shapovalov put Canada in one win to reach the final by defeating Roman Sviulin 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 in the first singles, putting Medvedev in a must-see position to win the second match.
Medvedev delivered in style with a flawless performance against 11th seed Auger-Alisym, making it one-way in the match after grabbing the first inning in the ninth game of the opening set.
Playing from behind the baseline, US Open champion Auger-Aliassime forced his shots, contributing to a downward spiral of fouls by the Canadian.
Exhausted Russia, who beat Italy in last year’s final, entered the tournament without fifth seed Andrei Rublev and world number 18 Aslan Karatsev after both tested positive for COVID-19 in the run-up to the team event.
In his first match of his career against 167th seed Sibulin, left-handed Shapovalov dominated the game to win the first set, but the brave Russian made things right after his opponent’s overhead shot into the net.
And Sibulin looked ready to go on for a surprise win over 14th seed Shapovalov when he had six points to break 2-1 in the decider. But the 22-year-old saved them all to hold serve and then used the shift in momentum to break serve 4-3.
Shapovalov, who contracted COVID-19 in the run-up to the ATP Cup, didn’t look back from there and completed the win in two hours and 39 minutes.
“Denis helped me and the team push myself,” said Auger-Aliassime. “It was a tough start in the doubles, so we can come back in this way, it’s a really team effort.”
“That’s what the ATP Cup is all about. You can still win after being one player and losing a tough singles match. It’s really about the team effort and we’re happy to get through it. We’re really happy for the whole team.”
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