Singles losses for Schnur and Pospisil to Kukushkin and Bublik
Madrid, Spain, Sunday November 28, 2021 The Canadian Davis Cup team presented by Sobeys was knocked out of the Davis Cup by Rakuten Finals following a 3-0 loss to Kazakhstan in Group B on Sunday at Madrid Arena in Spain.
Captain Frank Dancevic made a change to his lineup from Thursdays tie against Sweden as Brayden Schnur (Pickering, ON) replaced Steven Diez (Toronto, ON) for the first singles match against Kazakhstan. He took on Mikhail Kukushkin in what was the first-ever meeting between the players. Schnur put on a battling display but the first set would be decided by a single break of serve which went the way of his opponent, who claimed it 6-3. However, with Kukushkin up a break and with match point in the second set, Schnur showed great resilience to break back before winning the set-deciding tiebreak 7-5. The Canadian kept pushing and was hitting a variety of powerful forehands as well as deft drop shots. The third set was an intense affair, with both players dropping serve early. It remained level until, at 6-5 up, Kukushkin broke Schnur again to claim the set 7-5 and the match.
The first set, obviously, I dont think I played great, Schnur said in his post-match press conference, but it takes some time to adjust to his ball, everything is pretty much underspin on a wooden court thats bouncing low already and very slow. So, I have zero regrets in the first set, it just took me a little bit of time to find my groove. Outside of that, I played great and I regret the second game of the third [set].
In the ties second singles rubber, Vasek Pospisil (Vernon, BC) faced World No. 36 Alexander Bublik, who had beaten Mikael Ymer in Kazakhstans 2-1 win over Sweden on Saturday. This match in Madrid was the first meeting between the two players. Two breaks for Bublik in the first set, in which he had a 100% first serve percentage, saw the 24-year-old take it 6-2, despite Pospisils best efforts. The second set was evenly matched and remained on serve meaning a tiebreak was required to separate the two players. It was Bublik who came out on top, claiming it 8-6 to win the match and the tie for Kazakhstan.
He served well, Pospisil began in his post-match press conference. I just didnt play my best. For me, thats disappointing. I just feel like Im not as sharp these last few weeks on the court as Id like to be.
He added: Its obviously disappointing for our team to go out the way we did but we fought hard, we tried to do our best and thats it. Now Ill go home, have a bit of a break and get ready for next year.
Dancevic made a change to his doubles lineup before the third match got underway, subbing in Peter Polansky (Toronto, ON) for Pospisil to partner Schnur. They would face Andrey Golubev and Aleksandr Nedovyesov. In what was a dead rubber in terms of the outcome of the tie, Schnur and Polansky fought well but were ultimately undone by their opponents, losing 6-4, 6-7(6), 6-1.
It was definitely a tough week for us, said Dancevic in his post-tie press conference. I thought that we had a little bit of a shaky start in the first match against Sweden, guys werent sharp going into the matches. Today, I think the guys played great. Starting with Brayden and his match, I thought he played an incredible match, had chances and it could have gone either way in my opinion. Same with Vasek. Bublik came up with some incredible shots in the tiebreaker to finish that match and I feel like if we could have pushed that to a third set, anything could have happened.
Overall, I thought the guys played their hearts out this week. They did everything they could to try and get us through. We knew we had to win 3-0 today to have a chance and it was a really, really tough task. But in the end, well keep our heads up, regroup, assess a few things from this week and move forward from here.
Sundays results mean Team Canada is now out of the Davis Cup Finals and will play a Qualifiers tie in 2022. The draw for the Qualifiers will be made on Sunday December 5 in Madrid.
About Davis Cup
Founded in 1900, Davis Cup by Rakuten has grown to become the largest annual world championship in sport, with 142 nations entered in 2021. The new Finals format, which sees the top 18 nations compete to be crowned Davis Cup champions, was introduced in 2019 with Spain winning the title in Madrid. The 2021 Finals – held from 25 November until 5 December – will see the 2019 semi-finalists and two wild card nations joined by the 12 winning teams from the 2020 Qualifiers. Madrid will be the host city for the group stage, quarter-finals, semi-finals and final of this year’s edition, while Innsbruck (Austria) and Turin (Italy) will be host cities for the group stage and the quarter-finals. The Finals have been held since 2019 with the support of the Region of Madrid and Madrid City Council.
About Tennis Canada
Founded in 1890, Tennis Canada is a non-profit, national sport association with a mission to lead the growth of tennis in Canada and a vision to become a world-leading tennis nation. We value teamwork, passion, integrity, innovation and excellence. Tennis Canada owns and operates the premier National Bank Open presented by Rogers WTA and ATP Tour events, four professional ATP and ITF sanctioned events and financially supports four other professional tournaments in Canada. Tennis Canada operates junior national training centres/programs in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Calgary. Tennis Canada is a proud member of the International Tennis Federation, the Canadian Olympic Committee and the Canadian Paralympic Committee, and serves to administer, sponsor and select the teams for Davis Cup, Billie Jean King Cup, the Olympic and Paralympic Games and all wheelchair, junior and senior national teams. Tennis Canada invests its surplus into tennis development. For more information on Tennis Canada please visit our Web site at: www.tenniscanada.com and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
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