{allcanada} Raonic, Nishikori win as Davis Cup tie sits level

ESPN Fantasy Baseball / Yahoo Fantasy Baseball

VANCOUVER — Kei Nishikori defeated Vasek Pospisil in straight sets Friday as Japan knotted up its Davis Cup tie with Canada at one match apiece.

Nishikori, ranked fourth in the world, scored a 6-4, 7-6 (5), 6-3 victory over the 62nd-ranked Pospisil, who was playing in his hometown.

Earlier in the day, Milos Raonic of Thornhill, Ont., defeated Japan's Tatsuma Ito in 6-2, 6-1, 6-2 in just one hour 27 minutes to open the best-of-five World Group showdown.

The 25-year-old Nishikori fought back to win the first set against Pospisil after double faulting on a set point.

Pospisil, 24, stayed tough and led the second-set tiebreak 2-0 and 5-4, but couldn't close and found himself in a deep hole.

The players traded breaks in the third, and with Nishikori up 4-3, Pospisil had a chance to draw even, but instead double faulted to go down 5-3.

Nishikori then finished things off with an ace in a love game to round out a comprehensive victory that took two hours 18 minutes.

Raonic, 24, broke the 85th-ranked Ito twice in the opening set of the first match after leading 3-2 and never really looked back before a partisan, flag-waving crowd at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre.

Already up a break, Raonic asserted his dominance leading 4-1 in the second with a love game to break Ito again before a service love game to take the set.

Ito, 26, showed some life early in the third, but Raonic secured his fifth and sixth break points en route to a ninth straight Davis Cup victory on home soil.

The hard-serving Raonic took advantage of the fast surface at the University of British Columbia all afternoon, finishing with 17 aces and 42 winners compared to Ito's two aces and 15 winners.

Canada reached the World Group semifinals in 2013, but fell to Japan last year with both Raonic and Pospisil injured for the tie in Tokyo.

On Saturday, Pospisil and Toronto's Daniel Nestor are scheduled to meet Go Soeda and Yasutaka Uchiyama in doubles.

Teams can substitute players up to an hour before a match, and Canadian captain Martin Laurendeau said he expects Nishikori to play in the doubles contest.

The reverse singles matches are set for Sunday afternoon with Raonic taking on Nishikori and Pospisil meeting Ito.

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