Canada triumph, Auger-Aliassime models himself after Novak Djokovic

“Players like Novak are role models.”

Against Italy, he brought his Canada back to a tie, then contributed, in the doubles win against the Berrettini-Fognini pair, to give the North Americans the 2-1 point. In the final, Felix Auger-Aliassime had the point of his country’s historic first Davis affirmation on his racket. And he did not fail, beating De Minaur 6-3 6-4 and releasing all his joy in a contagious commotion.

For tennis Canada, it is a truly historic day, as the world number 6’s own words confirm in a press conference full of justified joy: “On the last point I saw that there was room to push and I pulled hard. When I saw that his ball was coming out I waited for it to fall: it was a very special moment. One plays several matches, but I will definitely remember this one. Compared to the 2015 Junior Davis Cup this one is obviously something else, but for us who were 15-16 at the time, that was special too. At that very moment we started to put the real cup in our sights,” he began.

“On the court I still have to perfect many things. We saw that even a champion like Novak keeps trying to improve-players like him are role models. In any case at the moment I am not thinking about what to improve, I will think about it next year. Now I’m overjoyed to have won. Today’s match with Alex was tough, because he is a great fighter, in Davis even more so: however, today was not really the time to be tired,” he concluded beaming.