VANCOUVER, B.C. — After an entertaining but expected opening day in Canada’s Davis Cup World Group quarter-final tie with Italy, both countries hold a rubber apiece in the best-of-five series, meaning Saturday’s doubles match could prove pivotal in the outcome of this tie.
With Milos Raonic looking virtually unstoppable on Friday with his fourth singles win from his four matches at the University of British Columbia’s Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre, this time over Fabio Fognini, there won’t be many observers who would bet on the Thornhill, Ont., native falling to Andreas Seppi on Sunday.
And despite Fognini’s straight-set defeat on Friday, he’s still a heavy favourite over Vasek Pospisil, who went five sets with Seppi but couldn’t grind out a result, despite winning the first two sets of his match with the 29 year old.
So assuming both Sunday’s reverse singles matches follow the script, Saturday’s doubles affair holds great significance.
As of Friday night, the doubles teams scheduled to play on Saturday afternoon comprise Daniel Nestor and Pospisil for Canada, and Paulo Lorenzi and Daniele Bracciali for Italy. The teams can make a substitution up until one hour before the match.
While Nestor remains a world-class doubles player at age 40 with a rank of No. 6 on the ATP Tour, with Canada things haven’t been going so well in recent times, as he’s fallen in his last three matches to France, Spain and South Africa.
That’s a fact not lost on captain Martin Laurendeau, who is hoping to get a special performance out of Nestor on Saturday.
“Daniel is a champion,” Laurendeau said Friday evening. “He’s won a lot of things. He’s won pretty much everything out there. One thing he’s lacking is a semi-final appearance in Davis Cup. He’s waited a long time for this opportunity.
“As a champion, he pretty much lost one doubles match or so in the last 10, 15 years. One or two, and now he’s lost the last three. So he’s looking forward to the opportunity to turn that around and contribute a point to the team.
“He’s a great team player. He shows up at Davis Cup and he’s there for the team every time, and it’s not a good feeling when you only have one match and you don’t contribute. He wants to avenge that for sure, and I’m expecting some good level of play (Saturday) by Daniel.”
While Lorenzi and Bracciali are scheduled for Saturday’s doubles match, there’s a strong likelihood that Fognini will come in for Lorenzi, as he is ranked higher in the doubles category.
Indeed, Nestor speculated immediately after the draw that perhaps a bit of gamesmanship was taking place, and Italy captain Corrado Barazzutti acknowledged on Friday that there would be a discussion about potentially making a swap for the match.
“We’re going to talk,” Barazzutti said. “We make a discussion and we’re going to see what happens. Maybe it’s better to change something, or not — I can’t tell you. It’s not top secret but I don’t want to tell you now.”
From a Canadian perspective, it appears unlikely that Laurendeau will tinker with his team, despite Pospisil playing five sets on Friday against Seppi.
“He’s a very resilient guy,” Laurendeau said of Pospisil. “He’s 22 and he can play a lot of tennis. He can handle a lot of running and a lot of playing and still look good out there. We’ll see how he is back at our team lounge since his match.”
Laurendeau then referenced Pospisil’s 2011 World Group playoff tie against Israel in which the Vancouver native played three days in a row, winning the doubles match alongside Nestor and a singles match on the final day to help carry Canada into the World Group for the first time since 2004.
“From what he displayed in Israel when it was 38, 40 degrees out there, and he played all three days in really difficult conditions, I’m sure he can do it again indoors,” Laurendeau said. “So I’m not too worried about his health and if he can last or not.”
That was a sentiment shared by the player himself after his defeat to Seppi on Friday.
“Speaking for the doubles (Saturday), I feel like I can play,” Pospisil said. “I’m not too, too beat up after that match. I feel fine. Speaking for myself, I’m ready to play doubles. Obviously, things can change quickly. Who knows how doubles is going to go, what’s going to happen physically, or whatever? I can’t speak for Sunday, but speaking for (Saturday) I know that I’ll be ready.”