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Stockholm Open champ Denis Shapovalov gets call for Canada’s Davis Cup team

Oct 21, 2019 | 10:16 AM

MONTREAL — Fresh off his first career ATP Tour title, Denis Shapovalov has been named to the Canadian team for the inaugural Davis Cup Finals.

Shapovalov, who won the Stockholm Open on Sunday, will be joined by Montreal’s Felix Auger-Aliassime, Milos Raonic of Thornhill, Ont., and Vancouver’s Vasek Pospisil at the Davis Cup Finals, Nov. 18-24 in Madrid, Spain.

Canada is in Group F with Italy and the United States.

There are six groups in the 18-team event. The group winners and the next two best teams advance to the quarterfinals.

It marks the first time the Davis Cup champion will be crowned at a neutral site during a week-long event. Previously, the World Group had ties over the course of a year with best-of-five series played at a home venue.

Shapovalov, from Richmond Hill, Ont., jumped seven spots to No. 27 in the world rankings this week after capturing the Stockholm Open crown. He won both singles matches over Slovakia in his seventh and most recent Davis Cup appearance earlier this year.

Auger-Aliassime, Canada’s top-ranked men’s player at No. 18, won the fifth and final match of the tie against Slovakia in his third Dais Cup appearance. The 19-year-old has been in three ATP finals this year.

The 32nd-ranked Raonic is 18-6 in Davis Cup play.

Pospisil, who missed the first half of 2019 after undergoing back surgery, will be making his 20th Davis Cup appearance. He won the Las Vegas Challenger on Sunday to jump 23 spots in the rankings to No. 168.

Shapovalov, Auger-Aliassime and Raonic all are entered in the Erste Bank Open in Vienna, Austria this week.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2019.

The Canadian Press