Spain vs Canada Prediction & Betting Tips - ATP Cup, Group B

Prediction published on 08/01/2022, 12:58  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 08/01/2022 at 14:30 in Tennis Predictions

Spain hope it will be second time lucky in an ATP Cup final. They lost to Serbia two years ago and now take on Canada in the 2022 final. The 12th seeds have no Rafiiael Nadal in their team but world number 19 Roberto Bautista Agut and Pablo Carreno Busta (20th in the rankings) have done their country proud in this tournament. Spain won all three of their group matches with only a doubles match lost. That took them into a semi-final against Poland. They won that 2-1 with Busta beating Jan Zielinski for the loss of just three games, his fourth straight singles win. It was a bit more difficult for Agut as he had to go to three sets to beat Hubert Hurkacz. Both the sets he won were by tie-breaks. Spain again lost the doubles but they'd already done enough to reach the final.

Canada are in their first ATP Cup final. Their singles players are Felix Auger-Aliassime (world number 11) and 14th ranked Denis Shapovalov. They are the eighth seeds for this tournament but in terms of combined rankings of their singles players, only Italy had a lower figure. Canada had a tough group with Great Britain, Germany and the USA to face. They got off to a poor start, losing 3-0 to the American team. Denis Shapovalov only played in the doubles in that tie, while Aliassime lost in three sets to Taylor Fritz. Canada needed to win their next two matches but then went 1-0 down to Great Britain when Shapovalov lost to Dan Evans. A place in the final wasn't looking likely then but Aliassime beat Cameron Norrie and he then teamed up with Shapovalov to beat Jamie Murray and Joe Salisbury. Their final group game saw them beat Germany 2-1 with both Aliassime (who defeated Alexander Zverev) and Shapovalov winning their singles matches. The semi-final went down to the doubles with Shapovalov and Aliassime (who'd lost to Medvedev) getting the vital win. The final sees Busta take on Shapovalov and Agut against Aliassime. This could go either way and is likely to go to a doubles decider and that can be won by Canada.