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. . & EVENTS
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Davis Cup 2013: Canada 3, Spain 2
VANCOUVER, February 3 - Canada upset Spain on Sunday to reach the
Davis Cup World Group quarterfinals of the Davis Cup for the first time in
the tournament's history.
Canada will play Italy next in April.
Canada's Milos Raonic beat
Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4, 6-2, on Sunday, at UBC's Thunderbird Sports Centre. The win gave Canada
a 3-1 lead in the best-of-five tie
with one reverse singles match to play.
In that last match, on Sunday, Canada's
Frank Dancevic lost to
Albert Ramos, 7-5, 6-4.
The Canadian duo of
Vasek Pospisil and
Daniel Nestor
fought hard for four hours on Saturday but came up short and fell to
the Spanish doubles team of
Marcel Granollers and
Marc Lopez
4-6, 6-4, 7-6, 6-3, 6-2. The Spanish pair won the ATP World Tour
finals last year in London.
Earlier, on Friday, Milos Raonic aced
Albert Ramos 16 times to win 6-7, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4. Later in the day,
Frank Dancevic, ranked No. 166 in the world, destroyed Spanish player
Marcel Granollers
6-1, 6-2, 6-2, to put Canada within a match of toppling Davis Cup five-time champions
Spain.
The Canadian Davis Cup Team included Milos Raonic (Thornhill, Ont.),
Daniel Nestor (Toronto), Vasek Pospisil (Vancouver) and Frank Dancevic
(Niagara Falls, Ont.). Team Canada was led by captain Martin Laurendeau. Jesse Levine of Ottawa,
Filip Peliwo
of North Vancouver and Toronto's Adil Shamasdin came to Vancouver as part of an extended squad of players.
Team Spain
included world No. 51 Albert Ramos, No. 82 Garcia-Lopez, and doubles specialists Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez..
Granollers is also a capable singles player at No. 34. Team Spain was let by
captain
Alex Corretja.
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The Davis Cup Moments
Enjoy series of
photos by Mamood Gouneili
and Gerry Kripps. |
Facts:
From the beginning, Milos Raonic
was the favourite to win both of his matches, given the home advantage and
because this tie would be played on the hard-court UBC surface. But the success for Canada really
came on Friday when Frank Dancevic came on like a ball of fire and got the job done. Thank you Frank!
Awards:
Grant Connell,
Daniel Nestor and
Sebastien Lareau received awards from Tennis Canada on Sunday for their
part in Davis Cup play.
Home Crowd:
The total attendance for all three days of the tie was 17, 796, a Canadian Davis Cup record.
Drums kept the crowd going. Cheers of "Go Canada, go"
seemed to erupt before every point.
Volunteers:
Thanks to Kathy Kadler and her team of
volunteers, Peter Grimsey and his
Ball-crew, and Anne Bees
and her team of
50/50 volunteers. The 50/50 team collected over
$14,000 - $7,000 given in prize money, and the other $7,000 for the Tennis
BC Schools Program.
More . . . .
The Thunderbird Sports Centre
at UBC underwent a metamorphosis from hockey arena to tennis court for the occasion. An extra 1,400 seats were added to the previous capacity a year ago, when Canada played France,
bringing the total to 6,213.
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