Canada’s Daniel Nestor and Milos Raonic lost in straight sets to France’s Julien Benneteau and Michael Llodra in today’s only tennis match at the Davis Cup tie held in Thunderbird Arena.
The 7-6 (1), 7-6 (2), 6-3 victory for France gives them a 2-1 overall lead in the best-of-five competition, with Canada now needing to win both matches on Sunday to advance to the quarterfinals of the annual national tennis team tournament.
The first two sets followed the same format, with both sides winning every game on their serve, forcing a tiebreak at 6-6. Both times, the French team dominated, and put the nail in Canada’s coffin by breaking early in the third set.
The matches against France are the first time Canada has hosted World Group play since 1992, and tickets for the three-day tie sold out immediately last year. And while there were some empty seats at Thunderbird Arena, the nearly 5000 in attendance were heavily pro-Canadian, waving flags and applauding on every winning point.
The temporary court, specially erected for the tournament, cost Tennis Canada $50,000 and was set up last Friday.
The Davis Cup continues at UBC tomorrow at 2pm, with No. 29 world-ranked star Canadian Milos Raonic taking on No. 6 world-ranked Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the first match, while Vasek Pospisil takes on France’s Julien Benneteau to cap off the tie.
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