VANCOUVER \u2014 A rolled ankle wasn\u2019t going to stop Liam Draxl from propelling Canada into the second round of Davis Cup qualifying.<\/p>\n
Draxl, of Newmarket, Ont., defeated Gustavo Heide 6-3, 6-4 in one hour, 29 minutes to give a Canada a 3-2 victory over Brazil in a first-round, best-of-five Davis Cup qualifier on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
Gabriel Diallo of Montreal forced the winner-take-all final with a nail-biting 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 (4) win over Mattheus Pucinelli de Almedia. The match took two hours, 27 minutes to play.<\/p>\n
In the seventh game of the opening set of the final \u2014 while holding a 4-2 lead \u2014 Draxl stumbled in the back court and fell on his hands and knees. He limped off the court to have his right ankle taped.<\/p>\n
The injury didn\u2019t appear to hamper Draxl\u2019s movement as he came back to win the set.<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s probably the biggest match of my career, the most pressure I\u2019ve had,\u201d said Draxl. \u201cIt means so much to me. To play for your flag, your country, and to book all the boys a spot in September, I\u2019m just super happy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Draxl admitted he was \u201ca little nervous\u201d when he first rolled the ankle.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was hurting for about 30 seconds,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen the doctor and physios were doing the ankle tests I was feeling no pain. So then I kind of realized that I was probably going to be all right.\u201d<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
In a long rally in the second game of the second set, Draxl moved from side to side returning Heide\u2019s shots. He took the point when Heide sent a ball wide.<\/p>\n
After winning the final game with an ace, Draxl dropped his racket, pumped his arms, and was mobbed by teammates.<\/p>\n
Canada advances to the second round of Davis Cup qualifiers in September, at home, against either France or Slovakia. The host Canadian city has yet to be determined. Brazil will compete in the World Cup Group I in September.<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
Last year Canada lost to Hungary in the first round of qualifiers at IGA Stadium in Montreal.<\/p>\n
The day began with Draxl and Calgary\u2019s Cleeve Harper putting up a great fight before bowing to the experience and composure of Orlando Luz and Rafael Matos in a men’s doubles match. After dropping the first match 3-6, the Brazilians won 6-4, 7-5.<\/p>\n
The doubles victory gave Brazil a 2-1 lead in the tie, putting the pressure on Diallo to win his match.<\/p>\n
Heide, ranked 253rd in the world, had upset the 39th-ranked Diallo 7-6 (4), 3-6, 7-6 (3) on Friday night. In the other opening night match Draxl, ranked 145th, defeated the 207th-ranked Lucas Reis da Silva 6-3, 6-3.<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
Reis da Silva was originally scheduled to play Diallo on Saturday, but Brazilian captain Jaime Oncins decided to replace him with Pucinelli de Almedia.<\/p>\n
After losing the opening set 6-3, Diallo went to work in the second. He used his booming serve and rocket returns to easily win the second set.<\/p>\n
In the third set, Diallo needed five deuces before winning the fourth game. As the match progressed, he had Pucinelli de Almedia chasing his shots around the court.<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
\u201cYesterday (Friday), I knew the things that I did well and I carried that over to today,\u201d said Diallo. \u201cI wanted to play the important moments with a little more conviction.<\/p>\n
\u201cI tried to impose myself and not let my opponent dictate.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the opening doubles match, Harper and Draxl were not intimidated by a Brazilian pair that had lost in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe obviously would have liked to come out on top,\u201d said Harper. \u201cDoubles, it\u2019s tough sometimes. There are thin margins and it comes down to one or two points here and there.<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
\u201cI really felt for most of the match Liam and I were the better team. We had a lot of chances early in the second set. Maybe we didn\u2019t convert.\u201d<\/p>\n
Luz said the bond he shares with Matos off the court makes a difference.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat counts for tough moments like today,\u201d he said. \u201cThe first set they played very well (and) we couldn\u2019t do much. To turn around these types of matches, this connection, it\u2019s very necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n
Canadian captain Frank Dancevic said his team showed character all weekend.<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not easy coming back after tough losses,\u201d he said. \u201cGabriel losing, then having to come back today, it\u2019s a lot of pressure. Credit him. He just decided to go for it and didn\u2019t back down.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dancevic also credited Draxl for shining in the deciding match just a couple hours after losing in doubles.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor him to come out and play the way he did, it was just incredible,\u201d he said. \u201cHe went out there with no doubt in his mind he was going to win the match.\u201d<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
Canada came into the tie ranked No. 9 while Brazil is No. 18.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fans got a true taste of Davis Cup coming down to the wire. It\u2019s just an incredible weekend for us. We have an incredible team,\u201d added Dancevic. \u201cWe\u2019ve done miraculous things in the past, and we\u2019re just going to see how far we can go this year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Also on Saturday, a ceremony was held to honour Vasek Pospisil of Vernon, B.C., the tennis veteran who recently announced his retirement.<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 7, 2026.<\/p>\n
Jim Morris, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"VANCOUVER \u2014 A rolled ankle wasn\u2019t going to stop Liam Draxl from propelling Canada into the second round…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":457944,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[941,103,29853,213625,39433,161489,198273,46167,213976,99,428],"class_list":["post-457943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-brazil","tag-canada","tag-davis-cup","tag-doubles-match","tag-gabriel-diallo","tag-gustavo-heide","tag-liam-draxl","tag-match","tag-mattheus-pucinelli-de-almedia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/457944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}