Croatia has reached their third Davis Cup final after Borna Coric clinched a marathon win over Frances Tiafoe in the decisive rubber of their country’s clash with America.

The tie was 2-2 heading into the final match after Sam Querrey stunned world No.6 Marin Cilic 6-7 (2), 7-6 (6), 6-3, 6-4, earlier on Sunday. In what was a battle of the young guns, Coric required more than four hours to prevail 6-7(0), 6-1, 6-7(11), 6-1, 6-3, in front of his home crowd. The roller-coaster performance saw the 21-year-old hit 53 winners to 96 unforced errors in what was his 16th match played in the competition.

“I felt phenomenal, set and a half, and then I relaxed a little too much at 5-1, and then (I had) a little panic.” Ćorić told Croatian media.
“It was unbelievable. This is the most special moment of my whole life…by far.” He later added.

On what was a day of celebration for Croatian tennis fans, former US Open champion Cilic admitted that he was frustrated with his own performance. He initially had a set and a break lead against Querrey before losing the match.

“It is difficult to look for reasons, but this is a bad day, I was nervous during the match, Querrey played very well in moments when I did not play the best.” He said during his press conference.

Coric’s triumph follows on from Croatia’s success earlier in the tie. On Friday both Coric and Cilic won their singles matches in straight sets to seal a 2-0 lead. Before America battled back to level 2-2 with wins by Ryan Harrison and Mike Bryan in the doubles as well as Querrey.

“Being twice in the final in the last three years is really an amazing result.” Captain Željko Krajan said about his team’s performance.
“I think we are really a super team, a real dream team.”

Sealing a place in their first Davis Cup final since 2016, Croatia will take on defending champions France in November. Who defeated Spain 3-2. The countries are currently tied at 1-1 in their head-to-head. Their last meeting was in 2016 when Croatia won 3-2 in the semifinal.

“It will be difficult in the final against France, they are one of the strongest teams, they have a really good team of players.” Cilic commented about the upcoming clash.

This year’s Davis Cup final will be held in France.

Despite playing in a tie that had little impact on their future in the competition, Great Britain’s passion for the Davis Cup was no less during their win over Uzbekistan.

On Sunday Cameron Norrie sealed the unassailable lead after defeating Sanjar Fayziev 6-2, 6-2, 6-0. Handing the host nation the 3-1 victory with a match in hand. Norrie’s win was also a case of redemption for the world No.70. On Friday he has a two-sets lead against former Australian Open boys finalist Jurabek Karimov before losing.

“I was pretty nervous coming into the tie today and Friday but the crowd got me through it. It’s always difficult playing your first home tie but I learnt a lot this weekend and I’m really proud of the team,” BBC Sport quoted Norrie as saying afterwards.

The win was achieved without the help of either Andy Murray or Kyle Edmund. Both players have opted to miss the event to focus on their fitness. Murray is on the comeback from hip surgery and Edmund has recently been hampered by illness.

Instead Dan Evans clinched a crucial five-set win over Denis Istomin on Friday. Evans was playing his first Davis Cup match since returning from a doping ban. Then in the doubles, Jamie Murray and Dom Inglot triumphed over their Uzbek rivals yesterday.

The tie was a play-off clash between the two countries, but it is technically insignificant due to changes being made to the Davis Cup. From 2019 the first part of the competition will be hosted either home or away followed by a week-long competition taking place at the end of the year. 18 teams will play in one location with Barcelona F.C. footballer Gerard Pique and his company Kosmos being a key investor in the new initiative.

Whilst the importance of Great Britain’s victory have been played down, the same can’t be said about the players or coaches involved.

“We have a great team spirit. What’s important is that before this weekend, a lot of people were saying it was a meaningless tie. I think you’ve seen from both teams, and how the crowd have reacted, this was hardly meaningless. It was brilliant.” Said team captain Leon Smith.
“The crowd like home ties, and so do we. We wanted to win this so we’re seeded for the draw. The new format, now the decision has been made, we have to embrace it.”

Looking ahead to the future, the British team are hopeful that they have a good chance of being awarded a wild card for next year. In the 18-team end-of-year tournament, two teams will gain entry with the help of a wild card. Britain won the Davis Cup title back in 2015.

“It feels like the wild cards are going to be a tricky one for them to decide to allocate before the qualifiers,” Smith said.
“Clearly we’d be a strong candidate based on the last three or four years in the competition, and how we’ve hosted ties. It will be interesting.”

Should they not get a wild card, the British team will be seeded for the first stage of the competition. Next year’s competition will get underway in February.

This weekend’s Davis Cup tie between Canada and the Netherlands marks the end of an era for renowned doubles specialist Daniel Nestor.

The 46-year-old took to the court on Saturday to play the final competitive match of his career alongside Vasek Pospisil. Playing in his 53rd Davis Cup tie, the Canadian duo bowed out 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4, to the Dutch pairing of Matwe Middelkoop and Jean-Julien Rojer. The loss has revived the Netherlands chances of winning the play-off tie as Nestor enters into the world of retirement.

“I wanted to play one more season and this match was one of the most important of the year for me and, obviously, I wanted to play better,” CBC Canada quoted Nestor as saying afterwards. “I prepared pretty well for it and I was playing well in practice, but my level’s just not good enough anymore.”

It is only fitting that Nestor should play his final match in the Davis Cup. He played in the team competition for 26 years, making his debut against Stefan Edberg back in 1992. Since then, he has become Canada’s most successful player in Davis Cup history with a total of 48 wins – 33 in doubles and 15 in singles.

“Danny’s had an unbelievable career. We have a lot of respect for him and what he’s been able to accomplish. In a way we were happy we were his last match. He’s a close friend of ours.” Dutch player Rojer told Tennis Canada.
“I know he was looking forward to this match and to be honest he came out and played very good at the beginning of the match and both of us were impressed. You give him a lot of credit for that because I know he prepared to come out and give a good showing, which he did. But you can say eventually Father Time is undefeated – it catches up with you. Maybe he had some nicks and bruises on the court. But it was an unbelievable career and now he gets to enjoy a new part of his life.”

Outside of the Davis Cup, Nestor has achieved a series of milestones throughout his career. He has won 91 doubles titles on the ATP World Tour, including 28 at Masters 1000 level. In 2009 he became the first player in history to win all four grand slam and nine Masters events. Nestor is also a former Olympic gold medallist after triumphing at the 2000 Sydney games alongside Sébastien Lareau. The duo remains the only Canadian tennis players to have won a medal at an Olympic Games. Nestor also peaked at a ranking high of 58th in the singles and won four titles on the Challenger tour between 1995-1998.

On Sunday, Nestor will be officially be inducted into the Canadian tennis Hall of Fame. A special ceremony will take place prior to the start of Milos Raonic’s match against Robin Haase.

“I consider him one of my really good friends, so it’s tough to see him go,” said Pospisil. “Honestly, it was an honour to be on the court with him. I really wanted to win this with him in his last match.
“It’s been a pretty fun ride playing with Daniel over the years and I’ll be sad to see him go.”

Canada current leads the Netherlands 2-1 in the Davis Cup going into the final day of the tie.

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