Denis Shapovalov worked hard, but finally beat Russia’s Roman Sviulin in three sets 6-4 5-7 6-4 late on Friday night to give the Canadians the first point.
Although he faced an opponent 153 places behind him in the ATP rankings, the 14th racket in the world needed more than 2 hours and 30 minutes to secure victory.
Having earned the honor of the first set with a break in the third game, Shapovalov was unable to play the same round in the next set. Rather, it was Cebulin who managed to take the only break in the group, in the twelfth and last game, and he repeated the same scenario in the third set, while there was only one break in the match, and the advantage of “Shabu” in the seventh game.
The Canadian did relatively well on serve, winning 51 of 67 rallies when the first ball was in play.
With this gain, Canada leads the 1 vs 0 duel. This means that Felix Auger-Aliassime will have the opportunity to propel his team to the final if he can beat Daniil Medvedev overnight. In the event of defeat, a double duel between the two countries will be resolved.
The winner of this confrontation will join Spain in the final.
