Team Canada defeated Spain 3-2 to advance to the second round of the Davis Cup World Group last weekend at UBC's Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre.
The win gives Canada a spot in the World Group quarter-final, which is open to the top 16 countries in the world, for the first time in history.
Milos Raonic of Thornhill, Ont. secured the berth with a straight sets victory (6-3, 6-4, 6-2) over Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in the fourth rubber of the three-day tennis tournament.
Following opening day wins by Raonic and Frank Dancevic in men's singles tennis, the men's doubles pair of Daniel Nestor and Vancouver's Vasek Pospisil fell to Spain's Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez 46, 6-4, 6-7(4), 6-3, 6-2.
Raonic gave Canada an unbeatable 3-1 lead on Sunday in the best-of-five tie with one reverse singles match to play. The Canadian team ultimately won 3-2 after Dancevic lost a later dead rubber (7-5, 6-4), which was limited to two sets, to Albert Ramos.
The Spaniards are five-time Davis Cup champions but they did not have their top four players in the lineup after David Ferrer, ranked fourth in the world, Rafael Nadal (fifth), Nicolas Almagro (11th) and Fernando Verdasco (24th) stayed home.
Canada is ranked 12th on the Davis Cup table while Spain, which lost the 2012 final to the Czech Republic, entered the weekend as the top seed. Canadian teams previously lost in four other World Group first-round ties - to Spain in 1991, Sweden in 1992, the Netherlands in 2004 and last year to France.
Canada will host Italy in the quarter-finals in April.
Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»is considered a top contender to host the tie with Italy, although Calgary is also expected to receive a serious look after narrowly missing out in its bid to host the opening round event.
