Davis Cup – World Group Teams Men
Canada – Finland: 12.09.2024 12:00 CEST
H2H: 0-1
1st potential matchup:
Felix Auger-Aliassime – Otto Virtanen
Felix and Otto are the best ranked players for Canada and Finland. This meeting will be played indoors on hard. Felix loves to play on the fast indoor hard courts. He lost his first round match at the US Open against Mensik, but showed overall solid tennis on the fast hard courts this season. Yesterday, against Baez, Auger won in straight sets as we predicted. Virtanen reached the second round of the US Open as a qualifier, where he lost against de Minaur in straight sets. Virtanen is a heavy hitter, and loves to play on the indoor hard courts. However, he is still a challenger tour level player. He is looking to get some solid results in this part of the season to get into the top 100. Yesterday, against Harris, Otto lost in straight sets.
We believe that Felix will continue his winning streak. He is very dangerous on these fast courts. Otto is a challenge level player, so we believe that he will have no chance against Auger-Aliassime.
That being said, we believe that Felix will get the first win for Canada.
2nd potential matchup:
Denis Shapovalov – Eero Vasa
Denis and Eero are the second best ranked players for Canada and Finland. Shapovalov lost his first round match at the US Open against Van de Zandschulp in straight sets. Shapovalov is still trying to find his best form. Denis won his first match for Canada against Cerundolo yesterday as we predicted. On the other hand, Eero Vasa is playing at the ITF level, and is currently ranked around the top 700. He is far away from the ATP tour level.
We believe that Shapovalov will be a better player on the indoor hard court tomorrow. Even though he is not in his best form, Shapovalov is still a way better player than Vasa.
That being said, we believe that he will get the second win for Canada.
3rd potential matchup:
Galarneau/Pospisil – Heliovaara/Niklas-Salminen
We expect Canada and Finland to play their doubles like this. Pospisil and Galarneau rarely play together, so we believe that their energy will be off in this matchup. Vasek has played only five doubles matches this season, and won only one. Galarneau has played only four doubles matches this season, and also won only one. Heliovaara reached the 1/8-Finals of the US Open with her partner Patten. They lost against Koolhof and Mektic in straight sets. His Davis Cup partner, Niklas-Salminen, spent most of the season at the challenger tour level with his partner Ji Sung Nam.
We believe that Galarneau and Pospisil will struggle on the court against Heliovaara and Niklas-Salminen. The Finns are solid doubles players on the indoor courts. We believe that they will win this match, and get the first win for Finland.
Best Bet to Make
We believe that Canada has better singles players than Finland. Shapovalov and Auger-Aliassime are always dangerous on the fast courts, so we trust them to win their singles matches. Unfortunately for them, the Canadians are not on the same level in the doubles. Finland will win their doubles match, but that should not be important if Canada wins both their singles matches.
That being said, Canada winning 2-1 is a value bet.
Main Photo Credit: Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports