Milos Raonic and Pospisil capture pivotal doubles match; Canada one win away from victory

The Miele Canadian Davis Cup team took a 2-1 lead over Mexico at the Davis Cup by BNP Paribas Americas Zone Group I first round tie on Saturday by capturing the critical doubles match. The pairing of Vasek Pospisil (Vernon, British Columbia) and Milos Raonic (Thornhill, Ontario) secured the crucial point for Canada with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 victory over Mexico’s Luis Diaz-Barriga and Miguel-Angel Reyes-Varela.
 
Entering the match even at 1-1 in the tie, Raonic and Pospisil had the opportunity to put a chokehold on Mexico heading into the reverse singles rubbers on Sunday. They were able to come through and now need only one more win to clinch the tie and move onto the next round.
 
“The guys did a great job today to come out and battle through some early jitters and strong play from the Mexicans to give us the important swing point,” said team captain Martin Laurendeau. “Now we are in a really good spot heading into tomorrow, needing to win only one of the two matches to secure the tie.”    
 
The young Canadians, both 20 years old, came out playing tentatively to start the match. With Pospisil playing his first live Davis Cup rubber, nerves were certainly a factor as the duo were broken early and went on to drop the first set. However, their confidence grew with each game as the tandem began to get their returns back and were serving at a much higher percentage to put pressure on the Mexicans. They were able to gain back and keep their composure to capture the next three sets and the match.
 
“It felt really good getting my first meaningful Davis Cup win today,” said Pospisil, whose previous Davis Cup match was a dead rubber. “I had really big shoes to fill replacing Daniel Nestor on the team but Milos and I have good chemistry on the court and off the court and I think our experience together as well as our big serving really worked for us today.”
 
As it stands now, the matches scheduled for Sunday will see Raonic take on Daniel Garza followed by Frank Dancevic against Manuel Sanchez in a potential deciding fifth rubber. The team captains are able to make player substitutions up to one hour prior to the start of the match.
 
A win over Mexico will advance the Canadian squad to a second round match-up versus Ecuador in Julywhile a loss would force them to play a relegation tie to keep their spot in Americas Zone Group I for 2012.