Published 09:18 IST, November 25th 2019
Spain lifts the Davis Cup for the sixth time after defeating Canada 2-0 in the finals
Spain won the Davis Cup for the 6th time after defeating Canada in the finals. Agut and Nadal put up a spectacular display of fineness against the Canadian side
Host nations Spain lifted the Davis Cup on Sunday evening, November 24, defeating Canada in the finals of the newly revamped tournament. Spain defeated Canada 2-0 in the singles tie. Roberto Bautista Agut who had left the team for a couple of days following the death of his father, returned to play the finals and he defeated Felix Auger-Aliassmie in straight sets 6(3)-7(7), 3-6.
An emotional victory for Agut
Agut's tennis was near perfect and was ready for the finals after big personal loss as he raked up 78% points on the first and second serve. An emotional Agut, after the match, said:
"I was lucky to live the last minutes of life of my dad and to say goodbye to him. Everyone takes personal decisions. I think my dad would have told me off if I had stayed at home. After living a tragedy, the best thing you can do is to step forward. This is what I have tried to do after the tragedies that I have lived in the last few years.I drove here from Castellón yesterday and I didn´t think about playing. I came to support the team with all my heart. But once we classified for the final, I started feeling like playing.”
In the second match, Spain's hero and world number one Rafael Nadal defeated Denis Shapovalov 3-6, 6(7)-7(9) to lift Spain's sixth Davis Cup. Nadal paid his tributes to Agut and said:
"What Roberto did today is out of this planet, in my opinion. Our team is great. I don't see a lot of teams that all five players take part in the competition. Each one of us played a match at least, and that makes this competition even more special because everybody of our team participated in the victory.”
After the loss, Shapovalov was upbeat and proud of the team's performance throughout the tournament. He said, "I feel like we've really come really far as a team, as a nation. And yeah, definitely we're super-proud. Obviously it sucks, losing in the finals. But I'm super-proud of everyone sitting here, super proud of the people in the background. We've put in 120 per cent every single day. It's amazing how far we've been able to come. For me, it's one of those weeks that I'm going to look back and really have a good feeling about it."
Captain Frank Danevic was also proud of the performance and mentioned the emerging tennis in the north-American country. He said, "Tennis is really hot right now in Canada...It's great for our sport. It's really wonderful to see this young generation is playing so well. We have a really bright future ahead of us, and it's bringing a lot of kids in clubs and playing. Our federation has been great at getting things going in the past decade. It's shown, and it's made a big difference in what we've done.”
Updated 10:22 IST, November 25th 2019