LIEGE, BELGIUM: Who needs rest? Well, David Goffin does now after his incredibly strenuous efforts of the past three days.
The
Belgian made a mockery of the idea that he would be too exhausted to
beat Marin Cilic after digging deep once more in this tie to beat the
Croatian world No. 12 64 64 36 75 and pull Belgium level at 2-2 in
this
Davis Cup by BNP Paribas World Group first round tie.
Now it just needs young Kimmer Coppejans, with just one live rubber
in his locker, to do the improbable by beating the prodigiously talented
19-year-old Borna Coric in the deciding rubber to pull off one of the
most famous victories in Belgium’s history. If he does it would be
arguably an even greater achievement than anything they managed on the
journey to last year’s Final.
After his emotionally draining match against Coric in Friday’s
singles Goffin looked jaded and error-prone in Saturday’s doubles, but a
new day almost miraculously brought a new Goffin.
The Belgian won the first two sets with such ridiculous ease we
wondered whether he would win without even raising a sweat. We should
have known better. Goffin prefers to do it the hard way. With his
contribution of 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.
The Croatian 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 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
devilish fighter.
Source: DavisCup.com
David Goffin is through to his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000
semifinal after beating Marin Cilic 7-6(4), 6-2 on Thursday at the BNP
Paribas Open in Indian Wells.
