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Auger-Aliassime and Shapovalov are ready to face the Germans

Gregory Strong, The Canadian Press

Félix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov reached the final when they played the Davis Cup together three years ago.

They reunite this week in Malaga, Spain, aiming to lead Canada to its first title.

Canada will face Germany in the quarter-finals on Thursday at the Palacio de Deportes Martín Carpena.

The lists for the two singles matches and the doubles match will be finalized on Wednesday.

Montreal’s Auger-Aliassime, sixth in the ATP rankings, and Ontario’s Shapovalov, 18th, should be the singles choices.

BC’s Vasek Pospisil, also a key member of Spain’s 2019 squad, is likely to be in doubles action.

World number 65, Oscar Otte, is the only German to have reached the top 100 in singles.

Tim Puetz and Kevin Krawietz are among the top 25 doubles duos.

Jan-Lennard Struff and Yannick Hanfmann are also part of a formation which is missing Alex Zverev (foot), 12th in the world.

“Our guys are going to have to be in possession of all their assets,” declared Canadian captain Frank Dancevic.

“Nothing is acquired. I feel we are slight favourites, but it will be a very tough game for sure.”

Laval’s Alexis Galarneau and Montreal’s Gabriel Diallo complete the Canadian roster.

Auger-Aliassime and Shapovalov helped Canada beat Spain in the ATP Cup final last January.

Canada won 2-1 in last September’s qualifying round in Valencia.

Canada beat South Korea and stunned Spain before sealing their place when Auger-Aliassime won in singles over the Serbs.

Germany beat France, Belgium and Australia in Hamburg to qualify.

Struff won all three of her singles matches, while Krawietz and Puetz won all three of their doubles matches.

The country that wins the matches between Canada and Germany will face Italy or the USA in the semi-finals.

Also in the quarter-finals, the Netherlands play Australia and Spain cross with Croatia.

The final is scheduled for Sunday.

Auger-Aliassime has won four tournaments in 2022 and has become a top-10 regular.

Shapovalov had a bumpy first half but reached the semi-finals last month in Tokyo.

He then qualified for the final in Vienna a few weeks later.

Pospisil, who won a Challenger tournament last week, is ranked No. 100 in singles. He has already reached the fourth level in doubles.

“He captures the spirit of Davis Cup at a very high level – the energy, the team spirit, motivating each other in the doubles,” Dancevic said.

“He got us through several games during qualifying.”

The defending champions, the Russians, were excluded from the competition due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

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