The The result was 2-1 for Team Maple Leaf, that he has never won the Davis Cup and that he will face Italy on Saturday for a place in the final.

Shapovalov was the protagonist of the meeting against all odds, first losing his individual match against Jan-Lennard Struff, a dangerous player on hard but currently lost in 152nd place in the standings (the Canadian is 18th), then by putting on his best face in the decisive moments of the doubles clash.

In the deciding match, the Canadians dropped serve twice in the first set, Pospisil’s turn, although it was Shapovalov’s hasty moves at the net that decided the result.

The North American pair were the first to break in the second set, 3-1, on Krawietz’ serve as the hour mark was about to expire. The Germans had only one opportunity to recover it, which they did not ratify.

The Canadian victory definitely materialized with a new service assignment from Krawietz (2-1). But The Canadian duo did not stop there: at 5-3, an outstanding comeback from Shapovalov led to an irretrievable 0-40 for the previously unbeaten Germans.

Before, to open the tie, Struff gave Germany the first point beating Shapovalov 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (2). On a track tailor-made for its ultra-fast surface, the German suffered the vagaries of the game and the mood of his rival, who broke a racket in anger at his own mistakes and stirred the stands.

In the tiebreaker of the third, the initiative was still Struff, who scored four points in a row and closed the game.

Then Félix Auger-Aliassime, the player with the best ranking, 6th, of all those who are playing the final phase in Malaga, jumped onto the field, but who beat the German Oscar Otte with more difficulty than necessary by 7-6 (1) and 6-4. Thus, he left the tie at 1-1.

The Canadian started his clash in insecurity, knowing that he could not lose, and until the decisive match he failed to tip the racket of the world number 65, whom he had already beaten once , this year in Florence.

In the tie-break they were really superior and that was reflected in the 7-1 final.

It didn’t win him regularly and it wasn’t until the seventh game that he broke the serve of Otte for the first time, who made his Davis debut this season and is yet to win. game in this competition.

the canadian confirmed bankruptcy with great difficultybut he has already closed the match with a clean game on his next serve.

“Any player around the top 50 can be dangerous at some point”, he then commented, after thanking his team for their support: “I was on the track, but it was the everybody’s business.”

Germany and Canada had never met in the Davis Cup, which the Germans have won three times, the last in 1993, and the Canadians none.

Absence due to injury Alexander Zverev placed the Germans as the team with the worst prospects in this final tournament, the only one without any player in the world top 60.

After this Thursday’s matches, Australia v Croatia on Friday, and Italy v Canada on Saturday, will be the Davis 2022 semi-finals.

Australia, who eliminated the Netherlands, are in contention for their 29th title. He hadn’t reached the semifinals since 2017 and he hadn’t won the Salad Bowl since 2003.

Croatia, the first team in the Davis World Rankings and responsible for Spain’s farewell, are the current runners-up and were winners in 2018, last year with the previous format of matches alternately away and away. residence. He has two titles.

Italy, which beat the United States in the quarter-finals, only lifted one bowl, in 1976, and since 2014 they have not made the semi-finals.

Canada was the last team to qualify against Germany.

The good news for the organizers was one day more spectators at the Martín Carpena Sports Palace: the 9,486 on Wednesday when Spain played were not reached, but the 7,956 on Tuesday were exceeded and 8 786 spectators were recorded in the morning and 8,243 at night, the only day with a double session.