Shapovalov/Pospisil Send Canada To Davis Cup SFs; Djokovic Helps Serbia To QFs

Vasek Pospisil and Denis Shapovalov led Canada past Australia in the quarter-finals of the Davis Cup Finals on Thursday, battling past John Peers and Jordan Thompson 6-4, 6-4 in a deciding doubles rubber.

Pospisil began the tie strongly for Canada, defeating John Millman 7-6(7), 6-4 to move his country within one win of the semi-finals. But Alex de Minaur rallied for Australia, beating Shapovalov 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 to force a doubles match to make the doubles a decider.

After dropping the first set, Thompson and Peers sprinted to a 3-0 lead in the second set. But Pospisil and Shapovalov won six of the next seven games to clinch the victory for Canada, which will face Serbia or Russia on Saturday for a spot in the championship tie.

Serbia won Group A earlier in the day with a 2-1 win against France. After Filip Krajinovic defeated Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 7-5, 7-6(5), Novak Djokovic clinched his country’s victory with a 6-3, 6-3 win against Benoit Paire. 

“”The team is looking good, we won all six sets yesterday, it was important getting a clean sheet against Japan coming into today’s match. Filip definitely gave me wings with his win, which was quite amazing,” Djokovic told DavisCup.com. “Tsonga was playing well and in good form and Filip was just fantastic on the court today. Credit to him.”

Great Britain dismissed Kazakhstan to clinch Group E. After Kyle Edmund triumphed for Great Britain and Alexander Bublik earned a comeback victory for Kazakhstan, Jamie Murray and Neal Skupski clinched their country’s win by moving past Bublik and Mikhail Kukushkin 6-2, 6-4.

“We played a great match from start to finish,” Murray told DavisCup.com. “We started really quick and were aggressive – we didn’t give them time to settle, time to play. That’s the style I like to play. Neal did a great job both days, played an amazing level of tennis, and we’re really happy to get the win and move on to the quarter-finals.”

Germany beat Chile 2-1. Philipp Kohlschreiber was victorious, and then Cristian Garin levelled affairs for Chile with a third-set tie-break win. But Nitto ATP Finals competitors Kevin Krawietz and Andreas Mies came through with a 7-6(3), 6-3 win for Germany.