Brothers Elias and Mikael Ymer on Thursday helped Sweden sweep aside Canada, while France fought back to down the Czech Republic and Croatia crushed Australia at the opener of the revamped Davis Cup.
Holders Spain suffered a blow to their title defense before hitting a ball in anger with Carlos Alcaraz in quarantine after testing positive for COVID-19.
The rest of the Spanish team, who are missing Rafael Nadal, were given the all-clear after polymerase chain reaction tests to play Ecuador in Madrid yesterday.
Photo: Reuters
Sweden were in imperious form in the Spanish capital against the Canadian 2019 finalists who went into battle without their top two players, Felix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov.
Elias Ymer, 25, started the tournament strong, beating Steven Diez 6-4, 6-2 before his two-year younger sibling Mikael Ymer sped past Vasek Pospisil 6-4, 6-4.
“Today my forehand was blasting,” Elias Ymer said. “I was hitting winners from everywhere.”
Robert Lindstedt and Andre Goransson then combined for a 7-6, 6-4 doubles win over Pospisil and Brayden Schnur to leave the Swedes needing a win over Kazakhstan today to progress to the quarter-finals for the first time since 2011.
In Innsbruck, where a surge in COVID-19 cases and a subsequent lockdown in Austria meant that matches ware being played once again in an empty arena, France started off rocky when 35-year-old veteran Richard Gasquet lost 7-6, 6-2 to Tomas Machac.
“Experience isn’t everything. Form is the key and I wasn’t up to scratch today,” Gasquet said.
France came back as Adrian Mannarino beat Jiri Vesely 6-7 (1/7), 6-4, 6-2, while Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-Hugues Herbert defeated Jiri Lehecka and Machac in three sets.
Great Britain complete Group C.
Australia, 28-time winners of the Davis Cup, have work to do after losing 3-0 to Croatia in Turin.
Borna Gojo beat Alexei Popyrin 7-6, 7-5 before Marin Cilic despatched Alex de Minaur 6-1, 5-7, 6-4.
Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic then raced to a 6-3, 6-1 win over De Minaur and John Peers.
Hungary await their debut in this Group D.
Spain was yesterday to face Ecuador, as the US open against Italy and Novak Djokovic’s Serbia take on Austria.
The Davis Cup, which began in 1900 as a bilateral contest between Britain and the US, has had numerous makeovers in the past, most recently in 2019 when it was reshaped to resemble a world championships.
This year’s competition sees 12 qualifiers — Australia, Austria, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Kazakhstan, Sweden and the US — joined by the previous edition’s semi-finalists — Canada, the Russian Tennis Federation, Spain and the UK. They are joined by wild card nations France and Serbia.
The 18 nations are divided into six groups of three, with winners and the top pair of second places going into the quarter-finals pot.
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