Soonwoo Kwon tied South Korea 1-1 in their first Davis Cup Finals group game against Canada with a 7-6(5), 6-3 win over Félix Auger – Aliassime.
Earlier, Canada took a 1-0 lead when British Columbian Vasek Pospisil overcame Seong-Chan Hong, 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (5), after a long duel of more than 2h30.
Auger-Aliassime, ranked 13th in the world, led 4-1 in the first set after winning the first three games to nil. He seemed to be in control of the game, until Kwon, 74th in the world, turned things around.
The South Korean won six of the next eight games and 12 of the last 17 in the match to force the presentation of the doubles match.
After flying through the second set, Pospisil, in his 24th Davis Cup appearance, quickly trailed 3-0 and 4-1 in the third set. But he returned to the tie thanks to two breaks and the experience of the 32-year-old veteran eventually allowed him to win the tiebreaker.
Pospisil and Auger-Aliassime will try to give Canada the victory against the Korean duo formed by Nam Jisung and Song Min-kyu.
For the rest of the group stage, Canada meet Spain on Friday and Serbia on Saturday. The top two countries from each of the four groups will advance to the finals, scheduled for November 21-27 in Malaga, Spain.