CANADA ELIMINATED FROM DAVIS CUP

Niagara Fall’s tennis product Frank Dancevic proved his worth for Canada but was knocked out due to a pulled muscle in a do-or-die singles match against Japan’s Kei Nishikori in Davis Cup Tennis action.

Japan got the victory in the first-round action of the Davis Cup tie after Nishikori defeated Dancevic 6-2, 1-0 and later in the day Peter Polansky (Thornhill Ontario) lost to Go Soeda in the fifth match 6-1, 6-4 to increase Japan’s margin to 4-1.

“Under other circumstances I probably wouldn’t have even stepped on the court with the way I was feeling, but this is Davis Cup and I wanted to give it all I had and push to the limit because this situation means a lot to me.”

Dancevic, ranked 119th in men’s singles, held his serve during the first game, but World No. 18 Nishikori went on to break twice and win the next five games to eventually take the set.

After being broken to start the second set, Dancevic took a medical timeout and was forced to retire, handing the match and the tie to Japan.

Canada will play a World Group playoff in September in hopes of keeping its spot in the upper echelon of the competition. Japan, meanwhile, will face the winner of a tie between the Czech Republic and the Netherlands in the Davis Cup quarter-finals.

The Canadian squad was missing its top two singles players at the tournament as both No. 11 Milos Raonic of Thornhill, Ont., and No. 25 Vasek Pospisil of Vancouver were unable to recover from injuries in time to play. Polansky, who lost Canada’s first singles match to Nishikori on Friday, replaced Raonic.

Dancevic stepped in for Pospisil in the doubles match with Daniel Nestor and the Canadian pair hadn’t played together in three years lost to Nishikori and Yasutaka Uchiyama 6-3, 7-6 (3), 4-6, 6-4.