Two weeks from now, the Canadian Davis Cup team will take to the courts in Vancouver against Japan, hoping to start a special campaign. With the Swiss duo of Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka expected to ease up a bit after finally capturing Davis Cup glory in 2014, the Spanish team largely an unknown commodity, and the French team unpredictable, it appears that the 2015 Davis Cup is somewhat up for grabs. That leaves Canada — healthy, this time around, thank the syrup — with a good chance to duplicate their appearance in the semi-finals two years ago.
A year ago, the Japanese team got the better of a Canadian squad miserably depleted by injuries. The Davis Cup site recap reminds us that Japan won the tilt 4-1 (in Japan, that time), but also that Milos Raonic and Vasek Pospisil — the top two men in Canadian singles — had to withdraw before the competition even began. Additionally, substitute no. 1 Frank Dancevic was hurt and retired midway through his round-four match against Japanese no. 1 Kei Nishikori. Taking nothing away from a Japanese team that performed quite well, given that fans didn’t get to see the teams competing at full strength it was something of a disappointing match-up.
This time around, the competition should be more balanced. Japan is expected to bring the same one-two punch of ATP #6-ranked Nishikori occupying the top spot and the always-capable Go Soeda (ATP #82) in the second slot. Meanwhile, Raonic (ATP #6) and Pospisil (ATP #60) both appear healthy. In fact, they are currently competing at the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam. ATP World Tour reports that Raonic (the no. 2 seed at the event) survived a tight first-round match. Meanwhile, Pospisil pushed through to set up a contest against top seed and Australian Open finalist Andy Murray. Kei Nishikori is currently the no. 1 seed at the Memphis Open, while Go Soeda is taking the week off after a loss to Viktor Troicki at Zagreb.
In short, all of the main singles competitors are now good to go, which makes the Canada vs. Japan contest much more interesting. In particular, fans eagerly anticipate the marquee singles matchup of Raonic vs Nishikori, as these two threaten to become future Grand Slam champions. Nishikori holds a 4-2 edge over Raonic in head-to-head competition thus far in their careers; however, the Canadian won most recently, a semi-final match at the Brisbane International in January. Raonic went on to take the middle set in the final, no mean feat against Federer, but gave the Swiss legend a break in the third set and settled for runner-up status.
So who’s expected to win this Davis Cup tie? Given the strength of both sides on singles, it would initially appear to be something of a toss-up. However, news/betting platform Betfair has posted odds for every team involved in the World Group of Davis Cup tennis in 2015. And judging by these odds, the Canadian team is looking like a clear favourite. With 11/2 odds of winning the World Group overall, Canada is the third betting favourite behind only France and Serbia. They’re also well ahead of Japan. This is likely due to the advantage of Pospisil over Soeda as the stronger no. 2 man, as well as Dancevic’s reliable anchoring of the Canadian doubles squad. However, Japan did win the doubles tilt a year ago, thanks in large part to Nishikori electing to play both formats.
Quoted at Tennis Canada, team captain Martin Laruendeau said, “We will be ready for the challenge and we know we have the capabilities to take on any team in the world.” That’s a bold statement for a team that needed a win over Colombia to stay in the World Group, but it matches the sentiments of some fans regarding these up-and-coming Canadian players. The Davis Cup first round tie, scheduled for March 6 – 8, takes place at the UBC Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre, where Team Canada won twice against Italy and Spain en route to that berth in the semis in 2013.