Canada were defeated by Sweden in a Group B Davis Cup finals preliminaries meeting on Thursday due to losses to Steven Diez and Vasek Pospisil at the hands of brothers Elias and Mikael Ymer.
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In the first game of the day, Elias Ymer, 171e world racquet, won in two sets of 6-4 and 6-2 against Diez, 264e ATP player. The meeting lasted 1 h 27 min.
The duel took place in two stages. Diez took the lead, 4-1, in the initial round, but Ymer won the next five games to secure the set. Then, the second was routine for Ymer, since Diez was never involved.
Ymer made 18 winning strokes, including three aces, and committed 10 unforced errors. For his part, Diez managed seven winning shots, including an ace, and totaled five unforced errors.
Later in the day, Pospisil (133e) could not find the solutions facing Mikael Ymer, 93e in the world. The Swede triumphed in two identical sets of 6-4, taking nearly 90 minutes to settle the case of the veteran British Columbia. The duel was relatively close, but two breakages – one per set – made the difference.
Sweden completed the shutout in the doubles match, with Andre Goransson and Robert Lindstedt overtaking Brayden Schnur and Pospisil in two sets of 7-6 (5) and 6-4. The two duos played almost equal for 1 h 40 min, being finally separated by the third break of service of the Swedes, in the second set.
Diez, Pospisil, Schnur and Peter Polansky are the representatives of Canada, whose captain is Frank Dancevic. Jonathan Mridha is also part of the Swedish squad.
Kazakhstan are the third nation in Group B, which the Maple Leaf players face on Sunday.
All matches are shown on the TVA Sports channel.
