Team Canada Makes History, Wins 1st Davis Cup
via Sportsnet
Canada is officially on top of the tennis world.
Since 1900 the Davis Cup has been contested for by tennis countries around the world and Canada has just won it’s first ever title, defeating Australia in the Final.
Denis Shapovalov started of the day by beating Thanasi Kokkinakis in straight sets.
Felix Auger - Aliassime followed that up and beat Alex de Minaur in straight sets to seal the title, making a dream come true for so many Canadian tennis fans and players who have been building into this success for decades.
Felix Auger-Aliassime Leads Canada To Davis Cup Glory
The young Canadian super star, now #6 in the world, has had an incredible year in team competitions. In January, he and Shapovalov won the ATP Cup in Australia, a similar country / team event to the Davis Cup. Then in September Felix won the Laver Cup with Team World.
Felix told The Slice in an exclusive interview:
"in team events I like to take on kind of a leadership role and I feel this sense of responsibility to really give my best and to give my best performance and dig deep”
That is exactly what he did in the Davis Cup, winning all 3 of his singles matches and one doubles match.
Felix had an incredible end to his season after a disappointing US Open. He won 3 titles (in a row), had a 16 match win streak, made the ATP Finals for the first time, beat Djokovic at the Laver Cup, and beat World #1 Carlos Alcaraz twice along the way.
Team Canada’s Team Spirit An Inspiration
Although only three of the five members of Team Canada actually played during the Davis Cup Finals. In this clip from the Champions press conference, you can see how much energy the bench players Alexis Galarneau and Gabriel Diallo gave to help Team Canada’s star players pull out the victory:
Davis Cup Title A Long Time Coming for Canada
Canada first participated in the Davis Cup in 1913. For 109 years Canadian tennis players and fans have been searching for the prize they’ve just captured. Throughout the country, many many fans and players will be celebrating this victory as a culmination of over a century of effort.
Part of the satisfaction of winning the Davis Cup is that it confirms what many Canadians believe: Canada is a premier tennis country on the world stage. Now that’s been proven.
On the Sportsnet feed, one of the commentators Robert Bettauer, who played Davis Cup in 1979 for Canada, showed the emotion felt by so many Canadians during this victory (even through extremely unfortunate and untimely satellite outages, making most of Canada miss the winning moment).
What’s Next For Canadian Tennis?
After Bianca Andreescu’s incredible 2019 US Open Title, the sky felt like the limit for what Canadian tennis players can do. With Felix and Denis showing some of the biggest upside on tour over the last 5 years, a Major title for a Canadian man seems like the logical next milestone to look forward to.
Milos Raonic (who is still planning a comeback) is the only male Canadian to make a Grand Slam final, when he beat Roger Federer in 2016 to make the Wimbledon Final where he lost to Andy Murray.
Felix Auger-Aliassime is poised to make a serious bid for the title in Melbourne, when the Australian Open rolls around in 2023. With the form he has show in the later stages of 2022, he knows he can beat anyone on tour, and believes he can eventually make it to World #1.