Felix, Shapovalov guide Canada to winning start in Davis Cup Finals Group Stage

Canada made a winning start to its Group D Davis Cup Finals Group Stage on Tuesday in Manchester, where Felix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov earned singles victories to underpin their country's 2-1 victory over Argentina.

In the opening match of the day, Shapovalov moved past Francisco Cerundolo 7-5, 6-3 to earn victory against the No. 31 player in the PIF ATP Rankings after one hour and 37 minutes.

Shapovalov converted all four break points he conjured up and capitalised on an erratic performance from Cerundolo, who committed 51 unforced errors.

World No. 21 Auger-Aliassime then walked onto court and brushed past Sebastian Baez 6-3, 6-3. Auger-Aliassime suffered a disappointing first-round exit at the US Open last month but looked in control throughout on the indoor hard courts in Manchester.

Argentina's doubles specialists Maximo Gonzalez and Andres Molteni then scored a 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory against Shapovalov and Vasek Pospisil after fending off 14 of the 16 break points they faced.

The Group Stage takes place in four cities, from Tuesday to Sunday, in Bologna, Manchester, Valencia and Zhuhai. Each group consists of four countries, with the top two countries in each group advancing to the Final 8, which will take place in Malaga on 19-24 November.

Australia and France split the first two singles matches in Group B. Thanasi Kokkinakis won a hard-fought match with Arthur Fils 7-6(4), 7-6(3) before Ugo Humbert levelled the tie with a 6-3, 6-2 win against Alexei Popyrin, who stunned Novak Djokovic at the US Open en route to a fourth-round run. Humbert won 80 per cent of his first-serve points compared to Popyrin's 59 per cent.

Just four days after winning the US Open doubles crown with Jordan Thompson, Max Purcell teamed with Matthew Ebden to seal Australia's 2-1 victory with a 7-5, 5-7, 6-3 victory over Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Edouard Roger-Vasselin.

Strong performance to level ??@HumbertUgo eases past Popyrin 6-3 6-2!@DavisCup | #DavisCup
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Established doubles partners Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen sealed Belgium's 2-1 victory over The Netherlands in Group D, defeating Botic van de Zandschulp and Wesley Koolhof 4-6, 7-6(5), 6-4.

Earlier, van de Zandschulp began the day by defeating Raphael Collignon 7-5, 7-6(6), led by 19 forehand winners. Belgian Zizou Bergs downed Tallon Griekspoor 6-2, 6-7(3), 6-3 after two hours and 12 minutes. The Dutchman raced to a 5/0 lead in the second-set tie-break and shortly after sent the match into a decider. Bergs' one break of serve in the final set was enough for the 25-year-old to capture the win.

In Group C, Germany shrugged off the sapping heat and humidity in Zhuhai to complete a 3-0 opening-day triumph over Slovakia and make a flying start to its campaign.

Playing without their top four singles players in the absence of Alexander Zverev, Jan-Lennard Struff, Dominik Koepfer and Daniel Altmaier in Zhuhai this week, Michael Kohlmann’s team were still able to produce a result befitting the nation’s stature in the game, dropping a solitary set across three matches on Tuesday.

Maximilian Marterer toppled Lukas Klein 6-4 7-5 in the day’s opening singles before Yannick Hanfmann shook off the early rust for a battling 3-6 6-3 7-6(3) win over Jozef Kovalik to put the tie beyond doubt.

Ever-reliable duo Kevin Krawietz and Tim Puetz completed a 3-0 clean sweep with a 7-5 6-3 victory over Klein and Igor Zelenay in the doubles.

“I’ve very happy. We performed well today,” reflected German captain Michael Kohlmann. “In all matches we kept trying to find ways to win somehow. Yannick maybe wasn’t playing his best tennis but he kept fighting and found a way to win the match, and Maxi gave us a great start.

“He came out very good, very focussed, very concentrated. It was very important for the whole team to start with a win.” 

Contribution from daviscup.com in the report.

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