VANCOUVER -- Canadian tennis is on the verge of a historic moment, and it could happen this afternoon at the University of British Columbia.
For the first time ever, Canada could advance to the quarterfinals of the Davis Cup World Group after going up 2-0 against Spain in this weekend's best-of-five tie.
Programming alert: Coverage of the Davis Cup continues Saturday, Feb. 2 at 4 p.m. ET/1 p.m. PT on Sportsnet East, Ontario and Pacific. | TV schedule
No, it's not Spain's best group of players despite their seeding as the world's top team -- world No. 4 David Ferrer, Rafael Nadal (No. 5), Nicolas Almagro (No. 11) and Fernando Verdasco (No. 24) have all opted out due to injury or lack of interest -- but the Canadians are still underdogs, and Friday's events have still shocked the tennis world.
Milos Raonic was expected to defeat Albert Ramos in the first rubber -- and he did, after some early first-set sputters, but Frank Dancevic wasn't scripted to beat world No. 34 Marcel Granollers.
And Dancevic certainly wasn't supposed to mop the floor with Spain's top seeded player in a straight-set victory.
But that's exactly what's happened, and now it sets up one of Canada's greatest all-time tennis players, Daniel Nestor (who is still ranked No. 4 in the world in doubles rankings), with a chance to do the unthinkable and carry his country into the quarterfinals of the Davis Cup, but it won't be easy.
"We're going into this match not favoured," Nestor said of the doubles encounter earlier this week. "They're one of the best teams in the world right now."
Nestor is paired with Vasek Pospisil, a 22-year-old Vancouver native with a powerful serve who has recently overcome a bout of mononucleosis -- those health issues meant he was ruled out for playing in singles matches in this tie, so his fitness as today's match progresses will be something to watch for.
No doubt the Spanish pairing of Granollers (doubles rank No. 5) and Marc Lopez (doubles No. 3) will target Pospisil, and how the youngster deals with that could determine whether Sunday's matches mean anything.
"I wasn't expecting to be ready for singles and I'm really happy I was able to bounce back and have good training for the doubles," Pospisil said this week. "In terms of getting all the balls hit at me it's not something I'm not used to. I've been playing with Daniel for a couple of years so obviously I know that that's going to happen and I'm preparing for that to happen."
As for the Spanish pairing of Granollers and Lopez, how the former responds to his lopsided defeat to Dancevic on Friday could be a big storyline in this match.
Will he bounce back or is he still feeling the sting of falling to an underdog in straight sets?
"We know how difficult it is, this situation," said Spanish coach Alex Corretja following Friday's matches. "We need to go out there and win doubles for sure. Right now it's not easy to feel anything positive, because we just lost two matches, and especially the second one in straight sets … but (Saturday) there will be no changes.
"Marcel and Marc are going to play, and we hope to win that match, because we know how those guys can play, and we also know how the Canadians can play, so we expect a very difficult match.
"But we're going to try our best, fight hard to the end, and if Canada wants to beat us, they need to come and play during the weekend. It's not over, even if we believe we may need a miracle to win this tie right now."
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