The Finnish duo formed by Harri Heliovaara and Otto Virtanen won the decisive battle of The Davis Cup quarterfinal series Canadians are new Alexis Galarneau and Vasek Pospisil (7-5 and 6-3)therefore Finland reached the semi-finals for the first time in its history.
In an hour and 45 minute match, the longest of the three in the first quarterfinal round, Otto Virtanen was the hero of his country. Virtanenhis team’s number one after a shoulder strain prevented Emil Ruusuvuori from playing, tied the series in the previous match against Gabriel Diallo.
Without noticing the fatigue and building a good tandem with Heliovaara, under the leadership of Virtanen the Finnish team became a giant to overcome the current champion. It helped that most of the thousands of fans filling the stands were Finnish. The mental thing is a plus for the Nordics.
At 4-3 and 40-0 down in the first set, the first tough moment of the match came to the Canadians, but they bounced back with courage and went to 5-5. The Americans did not give up, as they would leave the tournament without seeing their star on the court. Felix Auger-Aliassime, who has some physical ailments.
But the concentration on serve and the level of Finland’s leading voice, an Otto Virtanen who raised passion in the stand, helped respond with two consecutive games to close out the set 7-5.
In the second set, everything became more fluid, the mental thing reached Canada and neither Pospisil nor Galarneau was working well against their rivals, in a complete state of grace. 6-3 was the score that led to decibels of celebration from the Carpena crowd.
Finland will play in the first semi-final on Friday 24th at 4:00 pm and it is against the winner of the tie between Czech Republic and Australiawhich will be played this Wednesday starting at 4:00 pm
Source: La Verdad
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