Canada’s first Davis Cup is Italy’s great regret
The final of Davis Cup glides off smooth enough that the most embittered can only be Italy. To triumph – for the first time ever – is the Canadawho after the semifinal offer with the Azzurri has a very easy life against aAustralia that makes presence and little more. Denis Shapovalov and Felix Auger-Aliassime two sets each were enough for the departure of Thanasi Kokkinakis and Alex De Minaur, with the shadow of the double never even remotely falling on Malaga. And so we should really be sorry for that double which, in the semifinal, decided the tournament: if only the combative Berrettini and Fognini had succeeded in the coup, it is to be believed that the salad bowl would have returned to Italy, at almost 50 years since the triumph in Chile in ’76.
But with the ifs and buts the story is not made and so it is told of the “first” of Canada, which had already come close in 2019 by surrendering to Spain in the final. This time the real obstacle had already been overcome and the last act is almost a catwalk. Reducing from the knockout with Sonego, Shapovalov fluency, good replies and aggressiveness in serve are not allowed for distractions and in the opening set with Kokkinakis after a quarter of an hour he is already up 4-0, which in half an hour becomes a comfortable 6-2. In the second he allows himself some empty passes but still takes off quickly, with the opponent gnawing at something but collecting the 6-4 by white flag.
Auger-Aliassime goes on the field to close the tournament, in front of a De Minaur who has every intention of extending it. For four games he dances on the balance of continuous unrealized break points and then, after three more smoked in a flash, in the 8th he finally finds the break, keeping the following serve for the 6-3. In the following set instead Felix breaks already in the 3rd but without mentally destroying De Minaur, who indeed has his opportunities to reopen it: in the 6th he has three break points canceled and in the inside or outside game he starts with a 0-30, Auger-Aliassime, however, does not break down, makes four consecutive points and finds the 6-4 he gives his family the salad bowl. Canada enters the golden register of Davis, Australia postpones an appointment that has been awaited for 19 years and Italy roaches for having come so close to the dream, much more than the final podium says.