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Canada out of Davis Cup after Denis Shapovalov disqualified for hitting ball in umpire's face

Daniel Cherny

Canada have sensationally been eliminated from their first round Davis Cup tie against Great Britain after player Denis Shapovalov was defaulted for hitting the chair umpire in the face.

With the tie in Ottawa level at 2-2, Shapovalov was playing Briton Kyle Edmund to earn his country a place in the quarter-finals.

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Tennis player smashes ball into umpire's face

In a moment of frustration Canada's Denis Shapovalov unintentionally hit the ball into the umpire's face, resulting in Great Britain winning the Davis Cup match.

Edmund, already leading two sets to love, broke the Canadian's serve to take a 2-1 lead in the third set, at which point a frustrated Shapovalov angrily whacked the ball in frustration.

Unfortunately for the 17-year-old, who was the Wimbledon boys' champion, it landed square in the face of umpire Arnaud Gabas, who put his hand over his face in discomfort. Gabas was unable to continue.

Despite Shapovalov looking clearly apologetic, tie referee Brian Earley had no choice but to default him, meaning GB progressed to the last eight.

An emotional Shapovalov, who was playing in only his second Davis Cup tie, said: "I went back and spoke to the umpire afterwards and apologised directly to him".

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"Luckily he was OK but obviously it's unacceptable behaviour from me. I feel incredibly ashamed and embarrassed and I just feel awful for letting my team down, for letting my country down, for acting in a way that I would never want to act.

"I can promise that's the last time I will do anything like that. I'm going to learn from this and try to move past it."

Canada captain Martin Laurendeau accepted that the decision was the only possible course of action.

He said: "I didn't see what happened. When the last point was over I got up to see if on the changeover he'd have all his drinks and bananas and I just heard the crowd go quiet and then I looked back to see what had happened to the umpire and that's when I realised he was in the middle of it all.

"I knew immediately the rules are the rules and you've got to play by the rules."

Laurendeau, though, said he would have no qualms about picking Shapovalov for future ties and backed him to learn from the experience.

"He's a kid, he wants to face the music, he's not going to shy away," said Laurendeau.

"He's got some great talent and it's just the beginning of his career. He'll draw a big lesson out of this. Hopefully this makes Denis a stronger person, a better player but a better person, and he's already a great kid."

"It was a very strange way to finish the match," Edmund was quoted as saying by the BBC.

There were boos from the crowd at the TD Place Arena, who had earlier roared Vasek Pospisil to a 7-6 (7-3), 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (7-5) victory over Dan Evans that set up the deciding rubber.

Gabas was being taken to Ottawa General Hospital for a precautionary evaluation.

"No one is nicer or carries themselves better for a 17 y/o (year-old) than Shapovalov," tweeted his disappointed teammate Vasek Pospisil. "Everyone can see that today was an accident. Can happen to anyone."

Edmund had taken the first two sets 6-3 6-4 and seemed on the way to victory in the third when everyone inside the arena was shocked by the sudden turn of events.

"It is a surprise what happened at the end there and it is a shame," Britain's captain Leon Smith told the BBC. "I feel for the young lad. He's a great talent and he has learned a harsh lesson.

"The most important thing is the umpire's OK because that can be really, really dangerous when a ball's travelling at that speed from a pretty short distance. It's gone straight in his eye.

"But Kyle, from what we saw on Friday to today, was fantastic. How he prepared, how he took command, his unbelievable serving and he kept pressure on the turns. It was a great performance."

With Reuters, AAP, PA