2024 Davis Cup Qualifiers: Canada takes commanding 2-0 lead
By Charles David Mathieu-Poulin
(Montréal, February 2, 2024). On this cold February weekend in Montreal, the 2022 Davis Cup champions and second-ranked team in the world, Canada, are hosting South Korea at IGA Stadium, home of the National Bank Open in the summer. The two teams are aiming to qualify for the Finals Group Stage, which will be played later this year in September.
Playing without their top two players, as Felix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov both preferred to play ATP events in France, Canada is relying once again on Gabriel Diallo, Vasek Pospisil and Alexis Galarneau. The trio had surprised last September in Bologna, beating higher-ranked opponents to get Canada through the Group Stage and into the Davis Cup Finals in Malaga.
The encounter started with arguably the most intriguing match-up of the tie, as Canada’s #1 Gabriel Diallo faced off against South Korea’s #2 Soonwoo Kwon, who was ranked as high as 52nd in the world in 2021. For Diallo, who has been on a rapid rise in the last 24 months, it was a return to home, as he had trained in Stade IGA for most of his junior career.
In front of just about 2000 passionate fans, the young Canadian once again impressed with his big serve and athleticism, playing aggressive tennis to counter Kwon’s top-tier defense. Despite being down a break in both sets, the Montreal native managed to break back right away both times, only to break again in the last game of both sets to seal a 6-4 6-4 win.
“Moments like this are what I worked for, Diallo said in his post-match press conference. For me, there is no bigger moment than this. I’m from this city, this neighbourhood, I trained here when I was younger. Having a chance to play in front of my friends, my family, in an atmosphere like this, I’m very grateful and it’s a huge honour to be nominated”.
For the second match, Canada chose Vasek Pospisil, a Davis Cup veteran and a well-known fan of fast indoor surfaces, to face off against South Korea’s Seongchang Hong, ranked 224th. After a slow start, Pospisil reeled off four straight games to take the first set 6-4, moving to the net with much success. In a similar pattern, the Vancouver native went down a break early in the second set, but inspired net play and crowd-pleasing shotmaking turned the momentum around. Never looking back, Pospisil wrapped up an entertaining 6-4 6-3 win, giving Canada a commanding 2-0 lead.
Hoping to seal the tie, Canada will head into Satuday’s doubles as the heavy favourites, with Pospisil and Galarneau scheduled to face the duo of Jisung Nam and Minkyu Song. If needed, the reversed singles matches of Diallo vs Song and Pospisil vs Kwon are planned to wrap-up the day in Montreal.
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