Britain on cusp of Davis Cup final

Great Britain's Kyle Edmund celebrates after defeating Spain's Feliciano Lopez during their semifinal singles match at the Davis Cup Madrid Finals in Madrid on 23 November 2019. (AFP)

Kyle Edmund beat Feliciano Lopez in straight sets on Saturday to give Britain a 1-0 lead in their Davis Cup semifinal against host Spain.

The world No. 69 claimed a hard-fought 6-3, 7-6 (7/3) win over veteran Lopez, who stepped in as a last-minute replacement for Pablo Carreno Busta.

The winner will face Canada in Sunday’s final after the North Americans edged out the Russians in the first last-four tie.

The 38-year-old Lopez was broken in just the second game of the match as Edmund took the opening set, before seeing two set points come and go in the second.

Edmund clinched his third straight singles victory of the week on his third match point.

Spain needs world No. 1 Rafael Nadal to get past Dan Evans in the second singles clash to set up a deciding doubles rubber between Jamie Murray and Neal Skupski and Marcel Granollers and Lopez.

Denis Shapovalov and Vasek Pospisil led Canada to its maiden final with victory in the deciding doubles rubber against on Saturday.

The 20-year-old Shapovalov had drawn Canada level by beating Karen Khachanov after Andrey Rublev’s win over Pospisil in the opening match.

The Canadian pair then edged out Khachanov and Rublev in a dramatic deciding-set tie-break.

“I thought both teams played phenomenal,” Canada captain Frank Dancevic said.

“The Russians threw everything they had at us, it was just a matter of who came up with the better shots. There was no room for error today -– they went for their shots, went big in the big moments, and here we are into the final.”

It was their third Davis Cup semifinal, after previous last-four defeats in 1913 and 2013.