Canada out of Davis Cup after quarterfinal loss to Germany

MÁLAGA, Spain — Canada was eliminated in the quarterfinals of the Davis Cup international men's tennis tournament with a 2-0 loss to Germany on Wednesday.

Daniel Altmaier opened the tie with a 7-6 (5), 6-4 win over Montreal's Gabriel Diallo, then Jan-Lennard Struff downed Denis Shapovalov of Richmond Hill, Ont., 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (5) in the second singles match.

“I wasn’t quite as loose as I wanted. It was quite patchy, and there were some moments where I was a little bit scrappier," Diallo said. "But sometimes that’s how it goes. Today, in some moments, it got to me, and I didn’t manage to find my rhythm or my stride to get a win."

Even if Canada had won a singles match, the Germans had the elite team of Kevin Krawietz and Tim Putz waiting in the wings if a doubles contest was needed. The pair was coming off a doubles victory last week at the ATP Finals in Turin, Italy.

Altmaier put the opening match away when he came back from a 40-15 deficit in the deciding game and converted his only break point of the match to put Germany up 1-0.

Struff overcame 27 aces from Shapovalov and won the third-set tiebreaker when the Canadian committed his 13th double fault on match point.

“I’m very disappointed for the team,” Shapovalov said. “I feel like I let them down, especially since I felt like I had the match in my hands and a lot of chances. It just slipped away from me, so it’s definitely a tough one."

Struff complimented Shapovalov on a well-fought match.

"Today I think both players deserved to win,” Struff said. "But I’m happy to get it over the line at the end.

"Denis was playing amazing, coming out firing, he was serving so well the whole match. It was tough to return. Even in the tiebreak he hit some winners. It was very close."

Germany will face the Netherlands in the semifinals while Canada, the 2022 Davis Cup champion, looks ahead to next year.

Both teams were missing their highest-ranked singles players. Montreal's Felix Auger-Aliassime, ranked 29th in the world, withdrew from the tournament saying he wanted to focus on charity work. Germany was playing without No. 2 Alexander Zverev.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 20, 2024.