To put it mildly, Saturday was not the start Team Canada presented by IGA wanted to their Davis Cup Qualifiers 1st Round tie against Hungary.
In order to advance to the Qualifiers 2nd Round, Canada is going to need a perfect day on Sunday as they lost both singles matches in three sets on the first day of the two-day tie. Hungary only needs to win one of the three matches to clinch the tie, which means there is no margin for error for the hosts.
That being said, Canada should have reason to believe they can turn the tie around. Both matches on Saturday were close, with the Hungarians needing three sets in both. A point or two the other way and Team Canada could have been up 2-0.
“I think he won something like six more points. That’s tennis sometimes,” conceded Alexis Galarneau after his three-set loss to Fabian Marozsan.
“I started the match super well and I had a few chances at the start of the second set. But at Davis Cup, everything can change quickly with the momentum flips,” said Gabriel Diallo during his post-match press conference.
“It was a difficult day for us, that’s for sure,” said captain Frank Dancevic. “In the first match, it was a great match for Alexis. Both matches, I think the quality wasn’t bad. With Gab, [Marton] Fucsovics played very well, he didn’t give a lot of chances. It was a match where a couple of points changed everything. It was a match that easily could have gone 7-6 in the third, It was really a match with very small margins. It just wasn’t lucky for us today.”
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On multiple occasions during the post-match press conference, Dancevic credited the quality play of the two Hungarians, conceding a couple of times that there was not much the Canadians could have done to change the result. He specifically pointed to instances when the Hungarians stared down break points, only to conjure up big serves.
“Nothing to say. If the guy does that, there’s nothing you can do,” was the captain’s analysis.
Canada has not come back from 0-2 down in a Davis Cup tie in over a decade. The last time they managed the feat was in July 2011 when Daniel Nestor, Vasek Pospisil, and Philip Bester rallied to defeat Ecuador 3-2 in the Americas Zone Group I second round. That was also the last time Canada played in the Americas Zone.
However, the has been precedent for such a comeback this very weekend at the Davis Cup. Denmark rallied from 0-2 down to defeat Serbia in their Qualifiers 1st Round tie.
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Dancevic believes his team is capable of doing the same thing.
“We’re 2-0 down but I believe in this team, that we can come back tomorrow and win the doubles and with the guys we have, we can with this tie. Even 2-0 down, we can come back,” said Dancevic.
“There’s no panic buttons going off right now. It is what it is. We’re down 2-0 but that’s part of being professional, that’s part of being in the sport. You’re always looking for solutions to get back. We’re not done. We haven’t lost. We’ve always fought until the end in the past. It’s not an easy task but I have a lot of confidence in this team that we can do it. So we’re just going to go in tomorrow and try to get that point for us.”
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Liam Draxl and Vasek Pospisil are currently first in line to try and keep Canada alive in the doubles. If they succeed, it would be Diallo against Marozsan. If Diallo manages to even the tie, it would come down to Galarneau and Fucsovics, meeting for the second week in a row. The Canadian won their clash last week at an ATP Challenger event in Portugal in straight sets.
When asked how he felt about potentially playing the deciding match, Galarneau said, “If it comes down to me to play the final match, I’ll be ready. I love the occasions, that pressure. It’s exciting.”
Play gets underway on Sunday at 11 am.
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