DAY 3
Croatia’s #1 tennis player, Marin Čilić, made quick work of Mikhail Kukushkin Sunday afternoon in Varaždin, defeating the Kazakh 6-1, 6-1, 6-1 to book Croatia’s spot in the Davis Cup semifinals come this September. Croatia will host a solid United States team made up of John Isner, Sam Querrey and Jack Sock. Croatia defeated Kazakhstan 3-1 with two singles wins from Čilić and a doubles win from Dodig and Mektić on Saturday.
There was heartbreak in Zagreb two years ago when Čilić surrendered a two set lead against Argentina’s Juan Martin del Potro to gift the Argentines their first Davis Cup title. Croatia has the firepower to take a second title; winning their only other championship in 2005.
DAY 2
In doubles action on Saturday, Ivan Dodig and Nikola Mektić handled the Kazakhstani duo of Khabibulin and Nedovyesov in four sets to give Croatia a 2-1 lead in the Davis Cup quarterfinals going into the final day. After dropping the set in a tiebreaker, Dodig and Mektić won the following three sets 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 for the win. Now Croatia only need one singles victory on Sunday to move onto the semifinals. Marin Čilić is slated to go first against Mikhail Kukushkin, who defeated Borna Ćorić in four sets on Friday.
DAY 1
Marin Čilić made quick work of Dmitry Popko in the first singles match of the weekend, easily defeating the Kazak 6-2, 6-1, 6-2 to give Croatia a 1-0 lead going into Borna Ćorić’s match against Mikhail Kukushkin. Ćorić would take the first set 6-3 but drop the next three; 7-6, 6-4, 6-2 to end the day level with Kazakhstan at 1-1. Saturday doubles action will determine who has the advantage going into Sunday’s final matches.
All matches will take place on clay in Varaždin. Davis Cup is a “best of 5” weekend tournament with two singles matches on Friday, one doubles on Saturday and two more (if necessary) singles matches on Sunday. First to three wins moves onto the next round.
Onya Marin! Easy as piss win. USA going to be hard, and Spain has Nadal and Ferrer – tough team to beat if we make the final.
Goodness me Coric is inconsistent, so good recently and then this. At least Cilic had an easy win. I think we’ll still be right to face USA in the semis tho !