Madrid (AFP)
Nadal hit again! The world No.1 again won his singles and doubles, paired with Feliciano Lopez, to beat Great Britain on Saturday in Madrid and qualify in immense emotion Spain for the final against Canada.
"Yesterday, I arrived at my hotel room at 4:24 am (due to the late hour of the quarter-final against Argentina, ed.) Two days ago, the father of Roberto (Bautista) is dead, today Pablo (Carreno) had a contracture and Marcel (Granollers) had back pain ... "Nadal said to explain the strange choice of captain Sergi Bruguera to play the two singles and the double to only Feliciano Lopez and him.
Already stretched in the first set, the decisive double has become absolutely unbreathable in the second. To the point that Nadal, in a very rare fit of anger, attacked the supervisor directly.
Then, after miraculous points and after four set points for the British who would have restarted the game, Lopez concluded on a winning service. That caused a real volcanic eruption in the white-hot Caja Magica for nearly two and a half hours.
Spain has thus reached its 10th final and has already won five (2000, 2004, 2008, 2009, 2011). However, it lost its last in 2012 against the Czech Republic.
- Newcomer -
This time, it is a newcomer at this stage of the competition that the Spaniards will face on Sunday for the first Davis Cup final in its World Cup format.
Canadians Denis Shapovalov and Vasek Pospisil have eliminated Russia.
"I know we have a great team, but being in the Davis Cup final is really something," said 35-year-old Canadian captain Frank Dancevic. "But you have to temper your emotions because now we have an opportunity to win the title."
The Canadians had already reached the last two places (1913, 2013), but they had never played in the final of the prestigious team competition.
"Having put our country in a position to win it is a dream come true," Shapovalov said.
The scenario to get there was not sewn with, to begin with, the injury to the left ankle of one of the Canadian tennis nuggets Felix Auger-Aliassime (19, 21st world).
He can only help his team-mates Shapovalov (20, 15th), the other Canadian rising star, and the experienced Vasek Pospisil (29 and 150), who is recovering from a back surgery he suffered. January.
- History of package -
"I did not know how many moments like this I would still have the chance to live," said Pospisil. "But I came back to a very good level a lot faster than I thought, so being there and playing the Davis Cup final for Canada is incredible ..."
Especially since Canada has done all his career by using only two players: Shapovalov and him.
Canada had also created a controversy by forfeiting the doubles against the United States in the group stage, while the match promised to sink at the end of the night and the qualification was already assured after the two simple .
"It's hard to be criticized when you have injured players," Dancevic said on Saturday. "The truth is that my players were injured and I was not going to put two wounded players on the court to aggravate their wounds, because if I did, we would not be here today. Hui: I might have one in the hospital, or sent home. "
Be that as it may, it is the Canadians who will face the Spaniards after defeating the Russians, also after the decisive double win against the pair Karen Khachanov-Andrey Rublev 6-3, 3-6, 7- 6 (7/5).
Beat the Russian duo, admittedly not a specialist in the doubles but still finalist of the Paris Masters 1000 at the beginning of the month, is no small feat for two players who had never played together before this week.
© 2019 AFP