Beaten Sunday by Canada in the final of the Davis Cup, Australia does not digest this disappointment. Beyond the defeat, the defeated team still does not understand what the Canadians were facing in Malaga knowing that they had been eliminated in the play-offs last March.
Naturally, there is this defeat, dry (2-0), in the final of the Davis Cup, last Sunday in Malaga against Canada, while Australia dreamed of returning to success in this event. However, it is not the setback against the Canadians that leaves the Australians most bitter in the aftermath of this lost final but the presence of Canada itself. For Todd Woodbridge, double winner of the event, never indeed Australia should have faced Sunday in Spain for the title Felix Auger-Aliassime and his compatriots.
And for good reason. Many people may have forgotten it, but these Canadians who won the first Davis Cup in their history on Sunday in Malaga at the expense of the Aussies should not even have participated in this final phase. Why ? Quite simply because they had been… eliminated last March in the play-offs. Deprived at the time of its two leaders Auger-Aliassime and Shapovalov, Canada, then represented by the very modest (not to say unknown) Alexis Gallerneau and Steven Diez had been swept away (4-0) on the court of The Hague against the Netherlands.
“There will always be an asterisk above this victory”
A slap synonymous with elimination for the country with the coat of arms struck with the maple leaf which would therefore never have been able to finally continue its journey and even less imagine lifting the trophy eight months later without the involuntary boost of … Russia . After Russian President Vladimir Putin declared war on Ukraine, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) decided to exclude the Russian team and draft Canada.
For Woodbridge, who does not digest this draft system, the ITF should never have taken this decision, but only excluded Russia without replacing it. “I’m incredibly proud of the Australian team but not of the ITF and Davis Cup committee, because there will always be an asterisk above this victory for Canada. It revives the debate on the decision to grant wild cards, ”posted the former player on Twitter after the success of the Canadians.
