Davis Cup: Canada-Italy in the semifinals

Canada, Italy’s opponent in Saturday’s semi-final of the Davis Cup 2022 in Malaga, will be as predicted. But be careful: it’s true, the North Americans won against a tricky Germany (2-1), but they really suffered the pains of hell and didn’t leave a great impression of solidity. In short, Fognini and Volandri said after the splendid victory against the USA that one can dream, and having seen this Canada, it is not a sentence thrown out just to say. In reverse. You can dream because Davis, and the Azzurri have already demonstrated it, is not a simple association of players who meet according to ranking, with the strongest or highest in the standings winning and ending there. No, it’s much more: a state of mind.

Voltage

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The Canadians are undoubtedly strong, but they are young, very talented but not exactly the most reliable in the world, least of all in a situation like this, with the tension of a Davis semifinal. Everything revolves, for better or for worse, around Denis Shapovalov, the 23-year-old who has been exploding for years but who, apart from a few hits here and there, never really explodes. Against Germany, the world No. 18, born in Tel Aviv and of Russian-Ukrainian origin (yes, you read that right) did and undid everything practically by himself. He lost, going “alternating current”, to put it mildly, against Jan-Lennard Struff, a solid player but still number 152 in the world (6-3 4-6 7-6 (2)), in a match that card should have had no story. And instead Shapovalov, as often happens to him, made an infinite number of mistakes, some meaningless, giving away the first set and then seeing the ghosts in the third, when he first saved two match points and then, with a horrible tie break, gave the point to Germany. Shapo, however, made amends double, and big time. Paired with Pospisil, he literally dragged his partner and his national team against Krawietz and Puetz: a first set here too to forget, lost 6-2, then the 23-year-old really took the lead, dominating and spreading, with Canada the other two sets are awarded 6-3 6-3.

Number 1

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In the midst of all this, never forget it, there was the victory of the number one of the North Americans, Felix Auger-Aliassime, who kept captain Frank Dancevic’s team alive, beating (again not without difficulty) Oscar Otte 7- 6 (1) 6-4. The No. 6 in the world, Toni Nadal’s new protégé and back from an amazing season finale (partially obscured by the bad Finals in Turin) is a bit of a certainty (he too, not too strict) of this Canada, which in any case starts favorite in the semi-final against Italy. As was the US, after all.