This article was last updated on April 16, 2022
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The Miele Canadian Davis Cup team moved one step closer to the World Group on Saturday by winning the crucial doubles match against Israel in the Davis Cup by BNP Paribas World Group play-off tie at Canada Stadium in Ramat Hasharon, Israel. The pairing of Daniel Nestor (Toronto) and Vasek Pospisil (Vancouver) captured the crucial point for Canada with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 victory against Israel’s tandem of Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram.
Despite the fact that Nestor is the No. 5 doubles player in the world, Erlich and Ram, ranked No. 15 as a team, were favoured coming into the match by nature of the fact that they play with each other year-round. Their comfort and ease of communication was evident from early on as they handled the hard-serving Canadians well and got the extra break to take the first set. However, Nestor’s experience and competitive drive kicked into high gear midway through the second set when he saved four break points down 0-40 on his own serve. From that point forward, Nestor and Pospisil were in full control of the match, dominating on serve and capitalizing on key opportunities. Serving for the match, in a game that went to eight deuces, Pospisil needed five match points and saved four break points before closing it out and putting Canada in the driver’s seat for Sunday.
“Vasek was so clutch in that last game. He played so great and I don’t think he made one mistake which is huge under that kind of pressure,” said Nestor. “He has been the MVP of our team so far and we will need him again tomorrow. We have some momentum back now and we are really proud of the way our team is fighting so we will see how it goes tomorrow.”
Canada now needs just one victory in the final two matches on Sunday to clinch the tie and advance the team to the World Group for 2012.
“Today’s win I guess takes a little bit of pressure off our backs but this tie is far from being over,” said Pospisil. “There are two really tough matches tomorrow so we won’t be getting ahead of ourselves and we will come back out tomorrow and focus.”
As it stands now, Sunday’s lineup will see the No. 1 players from each team up first as Milos Raonic (Thornhill, Ontario) will play Dudi Sela. Then, if necessary, Pospisil will face-off against Amir Weintraub in what could potentially be the deciding fifth rubber. The captains of both teams do have the ability to substitute their players up to an hour prior to the start of the match. Peter Polansky (Thornhill, Ontario) is the fourth member of Canada’s Davis Cup squad.
“Today’s win was huge,” said Canada’s captain Martin Laurendeau. “That is a really tough doubles team we beat today. They play together week-in and week-out on Tour. Daniel really showed his veteran experience at key moments today and Vasek is just full of confidence and energy right now. He had nerves of steel at the end today. Tomorrow is another day though and we know they will come out fighting and we will have to be ready to battle for one more win here.”
A win over Israel will advance the Canadian squad to the elite World Group for the first time since 2004. Only 16 teams entered in Davis Cup play qualify for World Group. The losing nation will remain in their zonal group for 2012.
Play will resume at 7:30 a.m. ET on Sunday with the remaining two singles matches. Live coverage of the matches will be broadcast on Rogers Sportsnet East, West, Pacific and Ontario. Matches are also being streamed live on www.sportsnet.ca.
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