Great Britain were blown away by Canadian young guns Felix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov as they slumped to defeat in their second group match at the ATP Cup

Dan Evans had given Britain a dream start when he overcame world number 14 Shapovalov in the singles opener.

But British number one Cameron Norrie was then beaten by Auger-Aliassime, who is ranked one place higher than him at 11 in the world.

The match went down to the deciding doubles rubber but Auger-Aliassime and Shapovalov teamed up and swept aside Britain’s doubles specialists, Jamie Murray and Joe Salisbury, in straight sets.

British number two Evans put in another strong display, having inspired the team to a 2-1 win over Germany in their opening Group C match on Sunday.

He registered a 6-4 6-4 victory over 22-year-old Shapovalov, who was playing his first singles match of the competition having withdrawn from facing the USA on Sunday as he continues to recover after testing positive for coronavirus.

A win for Norrie would have sealed victory for Britain but he slipped to a 7-6 (4) 6-3 defeat to 21-year-old Auger-Aliassime.

Salisbury replaced Evans for the doubles but the British duo lost 6-4 6-1 in an hour and 10 minutes to leave the group evenly poised.

Great Britain, Canada, USA and Germany have all won one and lost one ahead of the final day of the group stage.

Britain’s captain Liam Broady said: “We didn’t get the result we wanted overall, but, you know, sometimes tennis works that way.

“The guys on the other side of the court want to win as badly as you do. No one will feel the losses as bad as we do, but we’ve got to pick ourselves up and go again in two days and try and get through the group.

“We’ll go out there and do our best to beat the US, and fingers crossed that will be enough.”