Canada steamrolls to victories in final Davis Cup matches

[audio:http://torontoobserver.ca/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/nicole_dan_podcast.mp3|titles=nicole_dan_podcast]

Frank Dancevic reeled off nine straight games in his Davis Cup match on Sunday before surrendering a single one to his opponent from the Dominican Republic.

It’s that one blemish in an otherwise perfect 6-0, 6-1 victory over Luis Delgado that Dancevic admits will keep him from being satisfied.

“I tried to make it 0 and 0,” he said. “Unfortunately I lost the game in the second. I was pretty upset about that.”

Both Dancevic and Peter Polansky steamrolled to quick and easy wins on the Grandstand Court at the Rexall Centre in Toronto.

Polansky defeated Victor Estrella 6-1, 6-2.

Because Canada had clinched its second round play-off against the Dominican on Saturday, retaining its spot in Americas Zone Group I, neither match had any bearing on the final results.

It only took 38 minutes for the 25-year-old Dancevic to dispense Delgado.

Both Dominican players were replacements for the originally scheduled Milos Raonic and Jhonson Garcia. For the 19-year-old Delgado, it was his first appearance in the tie and just his third Davis Cup match overall.

Dancevic said he noticed right away he was better than the inexperienced and overwhelmed Dominican player.

“I started feeling good from the first point and got into a little bit of a roll,” he said. “And I just saw that I was couple levels above this guy from the beginning and took care of business.”

The Niagara Falls, Ont. native says he challenged himself to lose as few points as possible.

“Against top guys, every single point in every set is very important,” he said. “You have to just keep your focus throughout the whole match, and that’s what I tried to do today. And it slipped a little bit in the second set when I lost that game.”

While the second match of the day featured two substitutes, both country’s number one players took to the court as planned.

For Polansky, it was an opportunity to put in a good performance before heading to Asia for a five-week tour.

“I really wanted to play,” he said. “It’s not easy playing the dead rubber and in the past sometimes they’ve been close matches against players that aren’t so good. I really wanted to go out there today and just bear down and try to make it easy.”

After a tough match on Friday, where he admits he didn’t play his best, the 22-year-old definitely looked stronger and more comfortable.

“[Estrella] was hitting a bit more, and he was going after the ball and making some more mistakes than the other guy did,” he said. “But I was able to get into some forehand crosscourt rallies, which I prefer more, and get him to run around some balls on his backhand a bit.

“I think he just let me play my game a bit more. It was just a bit easier to be myself out there.”

There was also some fatigue emanating from Estrella, who had already played two matches in the tie – a five-set contest on Friday and doubles on Saturday.

About this article

By:
Posted: Sep 19 2010 3:56 pm
Edition:
Filed under: Other Sports Sports
Multimedia:
Topics: