Spain win sixth Davis Cup in Madrid

MADRID - Spain won the Davis Cup tennis tournament on Sunday after beating Canada in the Caja Magica in Madrid.

The Spanish had been forced to dig deep to win 2-1 against Britain on Saturday night in a tie which ended close to 1am on Sunday morning with a nail-biting doubles match, but led by Rafael Nadal they were unstoppable against the Canadians on Sunday with Roberto Bautista Agut beating Canada's Felix Auger-Aliasimme 7-6, 6-3.

That set the stage for Nadal, the world number one, to once again be the hero for his nation.

Nadal stormed through the first set of his match against Denis Shapovalov 6-3, but Shapovalov improved in the second set and took it to a tense tiebreak which Nadal won after 16 tense points 7-6(7) to give the Spanish the sixth Davis Cup in their history before the final doubles tie.

Speaking on the eve of the final, tournament director Gerard Pique (who also plays for FC Barcelona) commented that the new format for the team tournament, which saw it played over a week in the same venue, had been a success.

However, he said that the tournament would look at making changes to solve problems which have arisen in the debut year of the format, the most serious of which is the timing of matches, which have run past midnight every day this week (except for Sunday), with play on Wednesday not ending until 4 AM.