Croatia completed a comeback from 2-0 down to beat the United States 3-2 in the Davis Cup quarterfinals in Portland, Oregon on Sunday afternoon. The visitors stayed alive with a surprise doubles victory by Marin Cilic and Ivan Dodig over Bob and Mike Bryan, thus setting the stage for Day 3 heroics. Cilic got the best of John Isner 7-6(9), 6-3, 6-4 before Borna Coric won the clincher 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 over Jack Sock.
“He played a pretty solid match I thought, overall,” Sock said of Coric. “Obviously I had chances and opportunities that I didn’t really convert. I mean, that’s tennis. Some days it’s firing and feels great; some days they’re missing a little bit. Credit to him. He played a great match. First point to last played solid and deserved it today.”
“You have to tip your cap to them because they played exceptionally well certainly from Saturday on,” Team USA captain Jim Courier commented. “We’re definitely disappointed, but we’re proud of the effort; I’m proud of the effort that our guys gave.”
It was not enough to avoid a historically bad defeat. This is the first time since 1994 that an opposing country has come back from 2-0 down against the United States.
“It’s really unbelievable,” Croatian captain Zeljko Krajan admitted. “We are still…I would say shocked from this win. Looking back on Friday and being 2-love down and then playing against Bryans yesterday, (it) didn’t look very positive for us.”
But Dodig, one of the best doubles players in the world, saved the day along with Cilic by upsetting the Bryan brothers on Saturday. With much-needed momentum in hand after collapsing against Sock from two sets up on Friday, Cilic turned in a stellar performance at Isner’s expense to set the stage for Coric’s heroics.
“I have to be thankful for the Marin and also to the Ivan,” Coric assured. “They played unbelievable match in doubles. No one was expecting that, really. Also Marin today winning in straight sets…. He was playing for the three days. He played nine sets in two days, which is really not easy. To play like that today was unbelievable, and the effort from him. I was feeling good coming in the match…. Today I was playing very good.
“It’s not easy to play in a fifth match, obviously. I have to be honest, I like that kind of situation. I like it more than playing on the Court 27 somewhere. I just like big stage more, when it’s more important. When I have more pressure, when the expectations are big, I like those occasions.”
In that case, Coric will certainly like what’s in store now for Croatia–a home semifinal tie against France in September. On the other side of the bracket, defending champion Great Britain will host Argentina.
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That was hard to watch, felt so bad for our guys, but credit goes to the Croatian team.