HALIFAX — You just don’t want to go back there. Canada, and Canadian tennis, shouldn’t want to go back there.
In terms of international team tennis, “there” is out of the prestigious 16-nation Davis Cup World Group, and back into the hinterland. Zone play. Fighting for scraps in third world countries, desperately trying to convince your best players to give up their time and energy for what seems at times to be a pointless, endless endeavour.
From 2004 to 2011, that’s where Canada lived. In March 2010, the Canadians faced Colombia on the road at the Club Campestre El Rancho in Bogota and were hammered 4-1 on clay, winning only the doubles rubber. Milos Raonic, then an ambitious 19-year-old who had yet to start climbing the ATP singles ladder, lost both his matches, Vasek Pospisil wasn’t yet on the team, and Peter Polansky and Steven Diez couldn’t win a singles match either.
Different times, and a very different place for Canadian tennis.
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This weekend in Halifax, Canada needs a victory over Colombia to stay in the World Group next year. Much has been accomplished in the Davis Cup by the Canadians over the past two years, putting the competition on the map in the Great White North in a way it really had never been before, and advancing to the 2013 World Group semifinals before losing to Novak Djokovic and Serbia on the road in Belgrade.
Then came a dispiriting loss to Kei Nishikori and the Japanese in Tokyo last January, with both Raonic and Pospisil unable to play because of injuries. With a team comprised of Polansky, Frank Dancevic and Daniel Nestor, it seemed like Canada had stepped back five years or more.
Both Raonic and Pospisil, coming off tough losses in the U.S. Open, are expected to play this weekend, as is Nestor, still a force in international doubles.
A win, and Canada stays in the World Group. A loss, and it’s back to the hinterland.
Strong tennis countries like Spain, the U.S., Australia and Argentina are in the same situation as the Canadians this weekend, so it’s no embarrassment to be in this predicament. But Canada has worked its way into the international tennis conversation in a way that it has never done before, and it would be a shame to see all that work evaporate.
Assuming all hands are on deck, Canada should be significant favourites, playing on a fast indoor track against a Colombian team filled with players who prefer clay, and one that is missing its No. 2 singles player, veteran leftie Alejandro Falla, due to injury.
After using Vancouver as a de facto home base over the past two years, Canada has moved this tie to Atlantic Canada, hoping to spread the word of the rise of the sport in Canada and get another community behind the Davis Cup team. Filip Peliwo, an aspiring player on the ATP Tour and former Wimbledon junior champion, has been replaced as an extra hand in favour of Brayden Schnur, who showed well at the Rogers Cup last month.
Otherwise, it’s the same team that created so many interesting stories over the past few Davis Cup seasons, starting with that memorable victory over the Israelis in Tel Avis in September 2011 that vaulted Canada back into the World Group.
This, then, is about staying with the big boys. And keeping the conversation going.