Vancouver, BC (Sports Network) - World No. 15 star Milos Raonic captured
Sunday's opening reverse singles rubber to give Canada an insurmountable 3-1
lead over Spain in a Davis Cup opening-round affair in Vancouver. The
Canadians will host Italy in their first-ever quarterfinal in April.
The 6-foot-5 Raonic whipped Spain's Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-3, 6-4, 6-2
on an indoor hardcourt at Thunderbird Sports Centre. A determined Raonic
pounded 22 aces and was not broken in just under two hours of play on Day 3.
The 82nd-ranked Garcia-Lopez replaced Marcel Granollers, a singles loser on
Friday, for the fourth rubber of the weekend.
On Friday in Vancouver, Raonic and Frank Dancevic came through with singles
wins to give Canada a commanding 2-0 lead in the best-of-five matchup.
Granollers and Marc Lopez got Spain's first point of the week and kept the
visitors' hopes alive with a five-set doubles victory against Daniel Nestor
and Vasek Pospisil on Saturday.
The five-time champion Spaniards were ousted by the Czech Republic in last
November's Davis Cup final. They entered this week's matchup without any of
their top-four stars in 11-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal, world No.
4 David Ferrer, 11th-ranked Nicolas Almagro and No. 24 Fernando Verdasco.
The Sports Network