DAVIS CUP FINALS

September 14, 2022

Captain Dancevic

Felix Auger-Aliassime

Vasek Pospisil

Team Canada

Press Conference

AUGER-ALIASSIME-POSPISIL/Nam-Song

7-5, 5-7, 6-3

Canada - 2

Republic of Korea - 1

CAPTAIN DANCEVIC: (Zoom feed started in progress.)

They Pushed us to the limits. Vasek won 7-6 in the third, played an incredible match, brave match to win it.

Against Felix, the Koreans just play incredible tennis. They played really, really good tennis. We were down at that point 1-1 going into the doubles. We knew we needed to win the doubles obviously to get through.

Vasek obviously spent a lot of energy in the first singles. He found a way to push through in the third set, dig deep. They both pushed each other, worked together as a team on the court in the third set, raised the energy and their level. Came up big when they needed it.

Really proud of the guys today, the whole team, the bench. We work together as a team. We got through. I'm really thrilled to be into the next round.

Q. Felix, a loss in singles, but a win in doubles, how do you reflect on this as preparation for the next two ties against Spain and Serbia?

FELIX AUGER-ALIASSIME: Yeah, well, that's the beauty of this competition. You have three matches, you need to win two out of three. Again, we were able to do it today. That's the most important.

I've been in similar situations in the past, whether it was in Davis Cup, ATP Cup. At the end when you make the effort and you come back and you win, it's really a gratifying feeling. It feels really good.

It makes me feel good to get the win with Vasek and to make the team proud, make the team happy. That's really good.

Then looking forward, of course we know it's going to be even tougher on paper, but who knows what's going to happen. It's tennis. We need to be ready.

We know we need to step it up and keep that energy going, yeah, and push. I feel like today gave us a lot of belief.

Q. Felix, you made a reference to a motivation that you got from Vasek 3-1 down I believe you said. Tell us a bit more about that.

FELIX AUGER-ALIASSIME: Yeah. I don't think I can repeat everything that was said (smiling).

Really tried to pump me up, yeah, the team up, just say, You know what, we're down 3-1, but we're not so far. If we push here, win this game, we'll get a chance to break back.

I think the most important from Vasek was really putting the belief into me and the rest of the team. I think the bench also felt that. Got even louder.

From that point on, yeah, it just felt like it was a really clutch break at 3-2. From 3-All I just felt like we rode the wave for the last three games. It was unbelievable, yeah.

VASEK POSPISIL: I didn't use those words, but...

FELIX AUGER-ALIASSIME: That was the idea behind it.

VASEK POSPISIL: That was the GP version (laughter).

Q. (No microphone.)

VASEK POSPISIL: Honestly, I don't know. It was very spur of the moment. I felt like we were playing really well for a large part of the match, other than the very first game of the match. I felt like we were the better team for a large majority. Suddenly we were down 3-1, had an energy drop for maybe 10 minutes.

I just kind of was like, Okay, we're not going down without a fight. Which we wouldn't have anyways, we're going to fight. It was obvious. More of a spur-of-the-moment kind of thing where I got very fired up (laughter).

Q. Vasek, we saw you getting treatment on your shoulder. Any comments on that?

VASEK POSPISIL: No, I mean, just some tightness, pain in the back from a very long singles match. Just some, yeah, maintenance work.

Obviously I wasn't serving terribly. I was actually serving, weirdly enough, my first serve was pretty good. I just didn't have a very good sensation on my second serve. It was just a bit of fatigue, some issues in the back of the shoulder, which is very temporary. 24, 36 hours it's 100%.

Q. Felix and Vasek, obviously you two are far superior to them. Do you think at some point the fact that they knew you were better than them turned this match around? They lost a bit of belief, dipped, you took advantage of that and played well towards the end.

FELIX AUGER-ALIASSIME: Yeah, that was the idea I think. Look, we had, like Vasek said, a bad first game. I felt like we had chances to come back in the first set. They were serving unbelievable. We have to give them credit for that.

I felt like from the middle of the first set, in the second set, we were the better team on the court. I mean, Vasek's results in the past, my results as well, I think just, yeah, on paper we are the better team.

I think knowing that in the back of our mind, even though we were down, I think we never lost belief. We knew if we stepped up the energy and played our best tennis, we could eventually win the match.

Q. The whole Alcaraz situation, he's there now, what do you think about him? Will he play on Wednesday, Friday?

FELIX AUGER-ALIASSIME: I mean, I don't know. For him to see. I don't know how he feels physically. He's had a long run in New York. They have depth in the team. They have a really good team. I think most likely maybe he won't need to play tomorrow.

But I think he'll try to play Friday and Sunday for sure. It's also close from his hometown. I feel like he probably wants to make the effort and try to play.