ITF

12 Winter 2021 ITF World RTF 2-0 Sweden Great Britain 1-2 Germany Italy 1-2 Croatia Serbia 2-1 Kazakhstan Quarter Finals RTF 2-1 Germany Croatia 2-1 Serbia Semi Finals RTF 2-0 Croatia Final Group placings and knockout results Group A 1. RTF 2. Spain 3. Ecuador Group B 1. Kazakhstan 2. Sweden 3. Canada Group C 1. Great Britain 2. France 3. Czech Republic Group D 1. Croatia 2. Australia 3. Hungary Group E 1. Italy 2. Colombia 3. USA Group F 1. Germany 2. Serbia 3. Austria DAVIS CUP FINALS Right World No. 1 Djokovic fought hard for Serbia Below The atmosphere at the Madrid Arena was electric doubles brilliance of two-time Grand Slam champion Kevin Krawietz and Tim Puetz and their four Finals match-wins. Their mastery was very much on show against Great Britain in the quarter-finals, with Krawietz and Puetz, playing just their sixth match together, recovering from 0-5 to win a second set tiebreak against Joe Salisbury and Neal Skupski. Ultimately, however, Germany were utterly powerless in the semis and failed to prevent the RTF onslaught, duly exiting the competition at the expense of the soon-to-be recipients of sparkling silverware and much kudos. For RTF, there was no looking back with Croatia their next and final victims – and few could deny them their moment of glory, it was richly deserved. n a long road to get where I want to be next year, but it's definitely given me a push." Gojo's defeat of Lajovic in the opening singles match of the semis, during which he recovered from a set down, was pivotal in Croatia moving to within touching distance of a third Davis Cup title. It paved the way for Mektic and Pavic to overpower Djokovic, who had defeated Cilic in the second singles clash, and Filip Krajinovic. Under the captaincy of 2010 champion Viktor Troicki, Serbia had been advancing ominously and beat Kazakhstan in the last eight after squeezing through the group stage in Innsbruck as a best-performing runner-up. They had flirted with elimination following defeat to eventual Group F winners Germany, who were repeatedly indebted to the ending, although they were not the only Croatian heroes on show as the intrepid Gojo was another to make a lasting impression. The 23-year-old chalked up three highly impressive wins over Serbia's Dusan Lajovic, Lorenzo Sonego of Italy and Australian Alexei Popyrin, all of whom were ranked at least 200 places above him in the world rankings. "To be honest, I always expect myself to win no matter who I play against," said Gojo. "For me, I always put pressure on myself because I know I can play, I'm just happy that I was able to show it. "It gives me a big push, a big lift to do well in pre- season and I believe that I can actually do it. I think it showed now with these wins that I can beat these guys. But it's a long season and Q U A L I F I E RS D RAW 2 02 2

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