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As the 2025 Davis Cup season comes to a close, the draw is already out for the preliminary rounds when it all begins again in February.
Canada has drawn Brazil, and will host them at a site to be determined on either Feb. 6-7 or Feb. 7-8, 2026.
(UPDATE: As we expected, Vancouver will host, on Feb. 6-7, at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Centre).
If they win, they would meet either France or Slovakia in September.
Here’s how the draw shook out (spelling errors theirs).
As the 2025 finalists, Spain gets a bye into the “final qualifying” in September, while Italy, as the host team, gets a bye into the final eight.
Assuming he plays – and at this stage of his career, you would expect him to – Canada should thus host teenage sensation Joao Fonseca for the February tie.
Brazil also has a pair of Thiagos who are down in the rankings at the moment – Monteiro (No. 186) and Seyboth Wild (No. 217) – but who have both been much better than that.
Monteiro, a 31-year-old lefty, was as high as No. 61 three years ago. And Seyboth Wild, still just 25, was as high as No. 58 just before the 2024 edition of Roland Garros.
The Brazilians also have a solid top-50 doubles team in Rafael Matos and Marcelo Melo, who team up together often during the season (Melo plays with his bestie Alexander Zverev when the German wants to play doubles).
In other words, no pushover. Especially as the Canadians, who won the entire competition in a different type of format back in 2022, haven’t had their entire squad in recent ties.
And, of course, Davis Cup stalwart and doubles go-to Vasek Pospisil has now retired.
Last February, hosting Hungary in Montreal, the two singles players were Gabriel Diallo and Alexis Galarneau. Only Diallo was victorious – against the No. 1 Hungarian Fabian Maroszan, after being beaten by No. 2 Marton Fucsovics on Day 1.
The Canadians had a better draw in September in the World Group I playoff, which allowed them to stay in the top-level qualifiers. They defeated undermanned Israel 4-0 in Halifax with Diallo and Liam Draxl as the singles players.
In 2024, Canada beat Korea in February (with Diallo and Pospisil playing singles), won all three of its round-robin ties in September to advance to the finals (with the full crew of Denis Shapovalov and Félix Auger-Aliassime), but bowed out to Germany in the opener there (with Diallo and Shapovalov).
As always with the Davis Cup – no matter what the format is, or what year it is – it all comes down to timing.
The ties will be held the weekend after the Australian Open concludes all the way around the world in Melbourne. The way Auger-Aliassime finished the 2025 season, he would have every expectation of going fairly deep there.
And the very same week as the qualifier is the ATP Tour event in Montpellier – followed by the ATP 500 in Rotterdam. Auger-Aliassime – who does his best damage on the indoor hard courts – is the defending champion in Montpellier, and will be looking to make some hay in Rotterdam after retiring in the first round there earlier this year.
That’s quickly followed by Doha and Dubai, where he has a final and a semifinal to defend. That’s a packed schedule; it would be a surprise to see him at Davis Cup.
If the Canadians do win, the September qualifier – held the week after the US Open – would be on the road against France, which beat them 4-1 with Canada hosting back in 2012.
They’ve never met Slovakia, so in that eventuality, the home-court advantage would be drawn by lot.
https://opencourt.ca/2025/09/10/aussie-davis-cup-captain-hewitt-suspended-for-offensive-conduct/
https://opencourt.ca/2025/09/09/canada-israel-davis-cup-empty-stands-halifaax/
https://opencourt.ca/2024/12/16/canada-hungary-davis-cup-2025-montreal/
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