Record crowd turns up to watch Great Britain get eliminated from the Davis Cup

James Richardson 15 Sep 2024 4:22 PM

Dan Evans reacts during a match.

Great Britain’s hopes of reaching the Davis Cup quarterfinals were dashed as Dan Evans lost to Denis Shapovalov of Canada.

The British squad, skippered by Leon Smith, went into the final tie at Manchester’s packed AO Arena knowing that only a 3-0 victory would ensure their advancement after losing to Argentina on Friday and other group outcomes.

Shapovalov, a former top-10 talent, outclassed Evans in one hour and 21 minutes, winning 6-0, 7-5.

Despite the best efforts of the record-breaking 15,700-strong audience, which outnumbered Wimbledon’s Centre Court, to motivate the 34-year-old, he was unable to force a deciding set. This is Britain’s second elimination from the group stage in three years, showing the captain’s limited choices.

Over the past few years, the Lawn Tennis Association has invested heavily in staging team competitions. While Jack Draper is projected to remain a strong number one for many years, Evans, at 34 is sliding down the rankings, and is most certainly beyond his peak.

Cameron Norrie has also endured a difficult year owing to injuries and has been steadily dropping down the rankings.

Billy Harris, who turned in a strong debut on Wednesday, is now 29 years old but has limited professional experience. Smith is expected to soon turn to younger players like Henry Searle, the junior Wimbledon winner from last year, and 23-year-old Scot Jacob Fearnley.

Evans has battled with form and fitness since last year, when he was Britain’s best player in both singles and doubles and helped the team reach the quarterfinals. He didn’t have an impact on the match.

However, Evans’ serve was promptly broken by Shapovalov, quieting the audience down right away. Evans struggled mightily after that, winning only nine points in the opening set and seemed to give up in the decisive game.

The veteran Brit had a strong start to the second set when he rallied with every point he won, but in the ninth game, he had two break opportunities and missed them both.

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In the last game, Shapovalov—who is presently ranked 100th because of a knee injury keeping him out of action—stopped Evans’ comeback with a break after he managed to saved both break points.

With this win, Argentina and Canada—the Davis Cup winners from two years ago—will both advance from Group D to the November final eight in Malaga.

Argentina were aware that victory in the doubles match against Finland would guarantee their spot in Malaga; Finland’s captain, Jarkko Nieminen, had selected Patrick Kaukovalta to partner Harri Heliovaara.

“We knew we had to win 3-0 and we are very happy as a team,” Gonzalez said. “We are so excited to be in Malaga. We wanted to get there since the start of the year.

“A lot of people came from Argentina to come and support us. We felt like we were at home.”