Borna Coric brought Croatia within one point of their second straight Davis Cup final with the loss Thanasi Kokkinakis by 6-4 and 6-3 in the first game of the semifinal against Australia taking place at the Martín Carpena pavilion in Malaga.
Coric, who in the quarterfinals gave way to victory against Spain by losing Roberto Bautistahe eliminated his rival in just an hour and a half and raised the Croatian score to 1-0.
The respective number one teams, Marin Cilic (17 on the ATP) and Alex de Miñaur (24), will play in the second individual match.
The Australian captain Lleyton Hewittgave an entry to Kokkinakis, 95 in the individual ranking and 15 in doubles, and instead left the bench jordan thompson (84), who played and won the quarterfinals against the Netherlands.
Although he set up some good forehands, Kokkinakis only held on in the first set because of his excellent serve, as he made a steady stream of unforced errors, 11 in that set. Coric (26) broke just in time to win 6-4.
The Australian player, who already lost this year to the same opponent in the Tokyo tournament, had his most inspired moment at the start of the second set, when he produced cross shots that offset the improvement Coric had experienced in his serve.
The Croatian managed the first breaking point of that set at the net, giving him 4-2, and he suffered no more to seal the victory, which he closed out with a straight match point. He crossed himself before celebrating with his companions.
Coric, who was out of the circuit for a year, between March 2021 and March 2022, due to a shoulder injury, returned to the top of tennis in August when he won the Cincinnati Masters 1,000, leaving five players from in the ditch on the side of the road. .’top-20′.
In Malaga, he won two out of two and once again suffered, by his own admission, pre-match nerves that made him go to the bathroom non-stop and gave him a stomach ache but, in return , makes him feel. life”. In addition, the right shoulder continues to bother him, although he has learned to “manage the pain”.
In case a doubles match has to be played to break the tie, Nikola Mektic/Mate Pavic for Croatia and Matthew Ebden/Max Purcell for Australia have been called up.
The other semifinal will be played on Saturday Italy and Canada.
Source: La Verdad
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