Michael Jordan said that “talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.” The basketball player’s legendary phrase serves to briefly summarize the current panorama of Canadian tennis. Leaders in groups, incapable alone. These are the current Davis Cup champions and winners of the ATP Cup in 2022, the team powered by youngsters Félix Auger-Aliassime (23 years old) and Denis Shapovalov (24 years old) in singles and a veteran…

Michael Jordan said that “talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.” The basketball player’s legendary phrase serves to briefly summarize the current panorama of Canadian tennis. Leaders in groups, incapable alone. These are the current Davis Cup champions and winners of the ATP Cup in 2022, the team powered by youngsters Félix Auger-Aliassime (23 years old) and Denis Shapovalov (24 years old) in singles and a veteran in doubles like Vasek Pospisil (33). There is a good foundation within the Canadian Tennis Federation and excellent investments and infrastructure were behind the first Salad Bowl in the North American country. However, the contrast is significant over the rest of the season as the same tag team champions fade away when they separate on the professional circuit.

The Canadian team surprised and won its first Davis Cup in Malaga after beating Australia in the final thanks to singles victories by Shapovalov and Aliassime. The two Canadian leaders easily got rid of Kokkinakis and De Minaur respectively. It was not necessary to reach the double in the final, but they were decisive in the semi-final against Italy and in the quarter-final against Germany. In both meetings, Vasek Pospisil, a doubles expert, was needed to tip the scales in favor of the North American country. The team led by Frank Dancevic is the best example of how to manage individual qualities for the benefit of the group.

This communion at Davis has nothing to do with what we observe in the ATP circuit. The best example was experienced this week in Canada itself, which has become the capital of world tennis, where the men play in Toronto and the women in Montreal thanks to the alternation of the two tournaments between the two cities. In both cases, their players failed to live up to expectations. In Toronto, the great hope of the week was, once again, Félix Auger Aliassime, who made his debut in his country on the very day of his birthday and the Australian Max Purcell (78th in the ranking) was responsible for spoil the party with direct serves (double 6-4). The defeat was a cold water blow for Canadian fans who observe how the Montreal tennis player does not raise his head in an irregular year.

“I have to be a man, go out on the field and give the best of myself, without fear of losing,” lamented Aliassime with a record of 13 victories and 13 defeats in 2024. Denis Shapovalov has the same record, which hasn’t even played yet. was able to participate in the tournament after being absent due to a left knee injury. Misfortune followed their teammate of Davis, Pospisil, who lost in the first round against the Italian Arnaldi (doubles 6-4). The three great figures of Canada, Davis Cup champion, no longer appear in the men’s singles table; Only the old rocker Raonic and another Canadian promise resist: Gabriel Diallo, who in his first match on the circuit beat Dan Evans (7-6 and 7-5).

Wanting and not being able

Passing through Montreal, host Bianca Andreescu, US Open champion in 2019, but with a career marked by injuries, also lost in the first round against the Italian Giorgi (6-3 and 6- 2). Only Leylah Fernandez remains in the running; The 20-year-old tennis player is the best example of a rise as fleeting as her fall. The young Canadian tennis player reached the 2021 US Open final without any prior experience and against all odds. Although he did not conquer greater New York, he was close to Top 10 at only 18 years old, just like the British Emma Raducanu, champion of this edition and whose decline in the ranking It was similar to that of the Canadian tennis player. Both failed to give in to the pressure; Leylah is in 81st place in the rankings while Raducanu has disappeared from the rankings. Top 100 due to injuries.

Aliassime and Shapovalov have similar stories. Both were champions of the 2015 Junior Davis Cup in Madrid. Since then, the spotlight has been on the two young Canadians considered to be the future of tennis in the short and medium term. Shapovalov was the first to enter the scene; His excellent serve and left-handed backhand, unusual among new generations, positioned him as an emerging star, even more so when in 2017 he beat Nadal at just 18 years old, by chance at the Canadian Masters. This young left-handed player, with a strong character and great technique, entered the Top 10. With more strong points what results (only one title in Stockholm in 2019, number 23 in the ranking),’Shapo’ He continues to struggle to gain a foothold where he was destined to reach.

Auger-Aliassime’s projection was, and has been, more promising than Shapovalov’s. In 2019, and at 18 years old, he became the top-25 the youngest since Hewitt in 1999, until the arrival of a certain Carlos Alcaraz who broke all records for precocity. In fact, before the emergence of the Murcian, the Canadian was emerging as one of the new leaders of world tennis after seeing how Tsitsipas, Thiem, Zverev and Medvedev continued to succumb to the hierarchy of Big-3.

Raonic, a giant who ends

Aliassime had everything to lead the change, he had the game (excellent serve, good forehand and elasticity typical of Djokovic) and the thirst to beat anyone (he beat Nadal, Federer, Alcaraz, Tsitsipas and Zverev, among others). Less capricious than his compatriot Shapovalov, but too cold to take this bite of the headlines. Semi-finalist at the US Open 2021, he reached the quarter-finals at Wimbledon the same year and also in Australia in 2022. Perhaps the Montreal tennis player’s problem was not him, he became world number six and currently occupies eleventh place. but the appearance of three young people ready to change everything: Alcaraz, Sinner and Rune. Even the arrival of Toni Nadal on his bench did not prevent a generational change which did not wait for Aliassime.

Canada never stood out for its player production until signing bomber Milos Raonic. A born server, aided by his height of 1.96, who reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon and Australia, both in 2016. However, injuries have hampered him and he is about to say goodbye to the short, even if he resists in this Canadian Masters. Since then, we have chosen to encourage the emergence of great promises. This is how Aliassime, Shapovalov, Andreescu and Leylah Fernández came out. A group of players who, although they did not achieve the expected individual results, managed to create a team atmosphere that led them to win the Davis Cup in November. The next challenge will not only be to revalidate the title, but also to transfer that aura that inspired them to lift the first Salad Bowl, into their respective individual careers.

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