Croatia beat Italy to reach semis at Davis Cup Finals

Turin, November 20 (BNA): Croatia became the first team to reach the last four Davis Cup finals after duo Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic beat Italian duo Fabio Fognini and Jannik Sener to win 2-1 in Turin. Monday.

Sener struggled from the brink of defeat to defeat Marin Cilic and move closer to the playoff after low-ranked Borna Gogo shocked Lorenzo Sonego to put 2018 champions Croatia in the driving seat of the match, Reuters reported.

The world numbered Miktik and Pavic duo proved to be very powerful as they silenced the crowd at Bala Albitor Arena to claim a straight win 6-3 6-4 in one hour and 19 minutes.

Croatia, who reached the quarter-finals by leading Group D last week, will face either Serbia or Kazakhstan for a place in Sunday’s final in Madrid.

The 20-year-old had earlier kept Italy afloat with a 3-6, 7-6 (4), 6-3 victory over Cilic.

Cilic served the former US Open champion for the match at 5-4 in the second set but hesitated poorly to let his Italian opponent off the hook. Sinner was strong in the tiebreak to take the match to a watershed point where he broke his serve in the first game.

Cilic responded with a back-break but from 3-3 in the deciding set Sener took charge to score a stunning win.

It all proved in vain although Sinner and Fognini didn’t make much of an impression on Croatia’s doubles specialists.

Earlier, the 23-year-old Gojo, ranked 279 in the world, beat the top 30 players Sonego 7-6 (2) 2-6 6-2.

Gojo looked tight early on and found himself 4-1 behind in the first set but responded impressively to seal the tiebreak.

Sonego seemed to turn things around when he lost the second set, but Gojo, who served up brilliantly, took the lead in the deciding set and showed great flexibility to salvage break points and keep a marathon serve at 4-2.

Jogo, who upset top-ranked Australian Alexei Popyrin in the group stage last week, claimed the win when Songo fired a forehand over the baseline.