At the end of a bruising week that did not play out as they had hoped, Great Britain emerged for the final day of Davis Cup competition in Manchester with just one possible path remaining for them to reach the next stage of the event: they needed to win all three matches against Canada, the strongest team in the group.
While this may have been a realistic possibility on paper, the reality played out as a painful anticlimax.
Great Britain were knocked out of contention at the very first hurdle following an excellent performance from Denis Shapovalov, who dismantled Dan Evans 6-0, 7-5 in the opening encounter.
Canada finished a successful week with a 2-1 win against Great Britain as a frustrated Jack Draper fell 7-6(8), 7-5 against Félix Auger-Aliassime in the second rubber before Neal Skupski and Henry Patten, on Patten's debut, defeated Gabriel Diallo and Alexis Galarneau 7-6 (4), 6-4.
While Canada advanced to the "Final Eight" knockout stage of the Davis Cup finals in Málaga top of Group D, Argentina qualified in second place. Great Britain finished in third with a 1-2 record after defeats against both Argentina and Canada.
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