By Mike McIntyre
Canada is set to open their Davis Cup tie against Slovakia on Friday at 3pm local time, 9am ET. The Canadians will be putting a much younger and different looking squad on the court than we have seen in recent years as 18 year old Felix Auger Aliassime and 19 year old Denis Shapovalov will carry the load in both singles and doubles.
Gone are familiar faces like Milos Raonic who is dealing with some knee issues, Vasek Pospisil who just had spinal surgery and of course the legendary Daniel Nestor who has recently retired. It is now up to the next wave of Canadian talent to show they are ready to get the job done for team Captain Frank Dancevic and Tennis Canada.
Action begins with two best-of-three singles matches on the red clay in Bratislava. The 25th ranked Shapovalov will get the call first against 26 year old Filip Horansky who is ranked 219th on the ATP Tour. Horansky has only four ATP matches under his belt with a 1-3 record. He has never faced either of the Canadian players before.
The second match of the day will pit Auger Aliassime, ranked 106th, against the 38th ranked Martin Klizan. Klizan is the veteran amongst the singles players at 29 years old and is a lefty. He will be playing in front of his hometown fans in Brastislava that will no doubt give him some added motivation to perform well. The Slovak has never faced Auger Aliassime but does boast a 1-0 career head-to-head against Shapovalov, beating him 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 on indoor hard court last year in St. Petersburg. Klizan has six career singles titles and an overall win/loss record of 140-133.
On Saturday Auger Aliassime and Shapovalov will first team-up in doubles against Filip Polasek and Igor Zelenay and then will play reverse singles against Horansky and Klizan if needed.
While Canada does not have an abundance of success on red clay, Shapovalov did make the semifinals last year on the surface at the Madrid Masters event while Auger Aliassime played the bulk of his 2018 calendar on clay - something that is rare among Canadian players.
Team Canada is rounded-out with Peter Polansky who is currently ranked 121st in the world and Captain Frank Dancevic who has come-in clutch for Canada in past ties and could play if needed. Neither Polansky nor Dancevic is expected to play unless of an injury or if there is a dead-rubber - a meaningless match - on Saturday.
Check back with us for more coverage throughout the weekend as well as updates on our Twitter page. You can also click here for an interview from my Southpaw Slice co-host Ben Lewis who chatted with Dancevic a day ahead of the tie for his take on what we can expect from the young duo of Auger Aliassime and Shapovalov.
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