Croatia Battles Into Last Eight

LIEGE, BELGIUM: Inevitably, there was something of an anticlimax about this victory by Croatia over Belgium in the fifth and final rubber of their World Group first round tie, which meant that last season’s runners-up had fallen at the first attempt in this year’s Davis Cup by BNP Paribas competition.
That isn’t meant to detract from the quality of the fifth rubber between two excellent young players – Borna Coric, of Croatia, and Kimmer Coppejans, of Belgium – it was just that David Goffin’s Herculean efforts here this weekend and the epic nature of his two singles victories, against Coric on Friday and Marin Cilic on Sunday, somehow deserved a more fitting reward for the team other than just personal glory.
Coric, although three years younger than Coppejans at just 19, is playing at a much higher level than his opponent and after a close first set it became increasingly obvious. He is a remarkably steady player, as Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal, just two of his victims in the last year and a half, will testify. The responsibility of giving Zeljko Krajan’s team victory seemed to sit very lightly on his shoulders - which is a reflection on his maturity - as he won 76(5) 62 62.
Croatia were worthy winners and if they can summon a similarly strong side in the future rounds of this competition they will take some stopping.
In fact, with an away tie – for the sixth consecutive time – to come against United States in the quarterfinals it is beginning to look like 2005 all over again. In that year Croatia had to pull off an improbable victory then against a USA team consisting of Andre Agassi, Andy Roddick and the Bryan brothers. The size of Croatia’s task this time is not quite so forbidding.
Getting back to this tie Johan Van Herck’s men can take great heart from their performances against a team who with the exception of Great Britain was stronger than any that they met on their journey to last year’s final.
The sporting cliché about a player not deserving to finish on the losing side was never more apposite than in the case of Goffin, who gave his all this weekend in the cause of his nation. Who needs rest? Well, Goffin does now after his incredibly strenuous efforts of the past three days.
The Belgian No. 1 made a mockery of the idea that he would be too exhausted to beat Cilic when he dug deep once more in this tie to beat the world No 12 64 64 36 75 and pull Belgium level at 2-2.
After his emotionally draining, if victorious, five-setter against Coric on Friday, Goffin looked jaded and error-prone in Saturday’s doubles, but a new day brought a new Goffin.
The world No. 16 won the first two sets with such ridiculous ease we wondered whether he would win without breaking sweat. We should have known better. Goffin prefers to do it the hard way.
By contributing three double faults in the sixth game of the third set he not only lost his serve for the first time since the start of the match but also gave Cilic hope where before there was none.
Cilic raised his game, which couldn’t have been much lower, and made a real fight of it. He was in contention right up until the finish when with match point against him he served a double fault. He didn’t deserve to finish like that.
The decision to give Cilic the day off on Saturday looked a wise one when Croatia won the doubles in straight sets, but while they may not have needed him Cilic may have needed the workout. He is not a natural clay court player and perhaps the more practice he got on this surface at the Country Hall du Sart-Tilman the better for him. For someone who has reached the fourth round of the French Open on three occasions he looked surprisingly ill at ease on it in those opening two sets.
Goffin, on the other hand, looked wonderfully at home and if he ever wins a Grand Slam it may well be on clay. It’s equally surprising that he has never been beyond the third round at Roland Garros.
He was demonstrably the better player in the first two sets in just about every facet of the game, occasionally even audaciously lobbing his 6ft 6in opponent. That triple double fault contribution, however, did wonderful things for Cilic’s confidence while bringing a slightly nervous edge to Goffin’s game.
Surprisingly, it was the first time these two have played each other and while no doubt Cilic will want his revenge at some time he certainly will not want to meet Goffin again on clay. The Croatian’s biggest weapon, his serve, wasn’t working at all well, but worse still his second serve was regularly being punished. At one stage in the first set he was winning less than 30 per cent of points on it.
But the big man bravely made a stand at the start of the third set, fending off three break points and five deuces in the opening game. He started to hit the ball more confidently and significantly eradicated the errors in his game.
Of course, the greater credit, though, has to go to Goffin for coming back the way he did in the fourth set just as he did in the fifth set of his match against Coric. He may have an angelic face but he’s a hell of a fighter.

Source: DavisCup.com