CANADA LEADS ITALY 2-1 AFTER DAY TWO OF DAVIS CUP BY BNP PARIBAS PLAY

Written by: Staff on 7th April 2013

CANADA LEADS ITALY 2-1 AFTER DAY TWO OF DAVIS CUP BY BNP PARIBAS PLAY

epa03652319 Canada's Daniel Nestor (L), playing with Vasek Pospisil, serves the ball during the Second Singles Match against Italy's Daniele Bracciali and Fabio Fognini at the Davis Cup World Group Quarter-Final Tie Tennis in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, 06 April 2013. EPA/RICH LAM |

The Miele Canadian Davis Cup team leads Italy 2-1 after the second day of play in their Davis Cup by BNP Paribas World Group quarter-final tie taking place at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. Daniel Nestor (Toronto) and Vasek Pospisil (Vancouver) were victorious over Daniele Bracciali and Fabio Fognini 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 3-6, 15-13 in four hours and 27 minutes to put their squad one win away from a semifinal berth.

It was an extremely close and intense battle that could have gone either way. After Pospisil and Nestor tidily captured the first two sets without facing a single break point, the Canadians were up a break in the third set but allowed the Italians to break back. Bracciali and Fognini then climbed all the way back to force a deciding fifth set.

In the fifth set, Canada went deep in several of Italy’s service games and held multiple break points. The pair ultimately converted one of nine break opportunities in the fifth. Serving from behind the entire set, Nestor and Pospisil finally netted a break in the 27^th game to go up 14-13. In the next game, Pospisil continued serving strongly and Italy only earned one point as Canada clinched it in the 267^th minute.

“After the match yesterday, losing in five sets and being up two sets to love, there’s no way I was going to let that happen today, in the sense where I was going to do everything in my control to literally fight for every single point in the fifth set,” said Pospisil. “And I made a couple adjustments on my return of serve which paid off and I started returning really well.”

“By the end you’re just playing, you’re not thinking, you’re trying not to get nervous, and you’re almost too tired to get nervous, and whatever happens happens, that kind of feeling,” said Nestor. “There’s a lot of times during the fifth set especially when you can get frustrated about missed opportunities and credit to both of us for staying positive, we never got negative one time no matter what the situation was, even in the third set and that was a missed opportunity. Vasek stepped up his level in the fifth, he won the match because I had a lot of break points that I didn’t connect on at all and Vasek made his shots and that was the difference.”

It was a team effort with both Nestor and Pospisil contributing at different key moments of the match. For the pair, it is their first Davis Cup victory together since they captured the crucial doubles rubber in Canada’s World play-off against Israel in 2011. Combined with Canada’s 1-1 opening day, which saw Pospisil fall to Andreas Seppi and Milos Raonic (Thornhill, Ont.) defeat Fognini, the country now needs to clinch one of the two matches on Sunday to reach its maiden semifinal.

“This was huge obviously, there’s a big difference from being 2-1 up or 2-1 down,” said Miele Canadian Davis Cup team captain Martin Laurendeau. “We’ve never been in this position so we have great opportunities ahead of us and at every corner. The guys since the beginning of the year were really keen on seizing this chance to play back-to-back home ties, use the crowd and make use of these comfortable conditions we’re playing in. It helped today, I’m really proud of these guys.”

Canada is playing in the Davis Cup quarter-finals for the first time in its history following a 3-2 first-round victory over No. 1-ranked Spain in February, which also took place at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre in Vancouver. The winner of this tie between Canada and Italy will move into September’s semifinals against either Serbia or the United States, while the loser will not play again in 2013. Both teams have already secured their places in the 2014 World Group due to their first-round victories.

Play will resume on Sunday at 2 p.m. PT with the two reverse singles matches, scheduled to be Raonic versus Seppi followed by Pospisil against Fognini. The team captains have until one hour before the match to change their nominations.

The matches will be broadcast on Sportsnet and TVA Sports. Please click here for the full schedule. Tickets are also still available for Sunday’s matches and can be purchased at www.ticketmaster.ca or by calling 1-855-985-5000. For more information, please visit www.tenniscanada.com/daviscup.

Topics: Canadian Tennis, Daniel Nestor, Daniele Bracciali, Davis Cup, Fabio Fognini, Tennis News, Vasek Pospisil