Croatia have a simple but effective formula for Davis Cup success: get to the doubles and let Mate Pavic and Nikola Mektic take care of the rest. It is quite an ace up the sleeve, having the reigning Wimbledon and Olympic champions in your corner, and Jannik Sinner and Fabio Fognini had no answer to Croatia’s trump card, slipping to a 6-3, 6-4 defeat as Vedran Martic’s side completed a 2-1 victory over Italy to reach the semi-finals.
It was a cruel conclusion for Sinner, whose magnificent fightback from a set and 5-3 down against Marin Cilic had ignited the raucously partisan home crowd at Turin’s Pala Alpitour after Lorenzo Sonego’s shock 7-6 (7-2), 2-6, 6-2 loss to Borna Gojo, a 23-year-old ranked 279th in the world.
Croatia, who reached the last eight after beating Australia and Hungary to top Group D, will face either Serbia or Kazakhstan in the last four.
“I think we would sign off for 1-1 to have a live match in the doubles,” said Pavic, who recently reached the last four of the ATP Finals alongside Mektic at the Pala Alpitour. “Obviously, we were not expecting to win the first match. We did. We felt some pressure, but I think we played also in the group stage two good matches, especially the first one [against Australia].
“Even today we played incredibly well. I think we didn’t have any break points against us. I think the level overall, also last week, [when] we played here in Torino, the Masters Final, so we felt the court a little bit, the place. I think we played a good tournament also there. So we came to the Davis Cup pretty confident. We showed it today. We played three good matches, now we’re looking forward to the semis.”
For the Italians, defeat brought a memorable year to a disappointing conclusion. Sinner and Matteo Berrettini, who in July became the first Italian in history to reach the Wimbledon final, have led the Azzurri charge, with Berrettini qualifying for the ATP Finals on home soil and Sinner replacing him as first alternate after the distraught world No 7 was injured in his opening match.
Another setback for the nation at the Pala Alpitour, where drums and trumpets added to the tumultuous clamour, looked unlikely when Sonego moved within a point of opening up a 5-1 first-set lead. But Gojo, a player more accustomed to plying his trade on the Challenger Tour than mixing it with the elite, rose to the occasion magnificently, charging back to take the opening set on a tiebreak before holding his nerve in the decider with a near-flawless exhibition of serving.
“It helped to have a captain on the bench to say a couple of words of encouragement,” said Gojo, who benefited throughout from the measured encouragement of Croatia’s coach Vedran Martic, not least at the start of the decider. “We had a plan that I really didn’t stick to at the beginning, so I tried to do better. I tried to stay positive. I knew tennis is a game where there’s a lot of pressure on the other guy also. I was just positive and waiting for my chance. It came in the first set. I was able to break back. That was really good.”
It was at the start of the decider that Martic really came into his own. “He said, ‘It’s one set now, anyone can win,’” added Gojo, who capitalised on some nervy play by Sonego to break in the fourth game. “There’s a big difference in ranking, but when you come to that point, it’s way more mental than it is tennis-wise. I was able to focus on the things I do. I was always trying to focus more on the Croatian part of the crowd and not really care about what the other 90% of the place is doing. I think I did that good today.”
Gojo’s unexpected win set the stage for an epic clash between Cilic and Sinner, two players at opposite ends of the career spectrum. For the better part of two sets, it was the Croatian’s greater experience and willingness to force the issue that told. Dominant on serve, decisive at the net and always ready to take on the short ball, Cilic established seemingly irresistible momentum.
Sinner had an obvious ally in the crowd, but the 20-year-old is not a natural showman and there was an awkwardness about his initial attempts to orchestrate the energy in the arena. But when the Italian broke to love with Cilic serving for the match at 5-4 in the second set, his fist pumps and vocal exhortations began to carry greater conviction. By the time he clinched the set with a running forehand pass, leaping high as he punched the air, no one was doubting the sincerity of his emotions. Sinner went on to close out a 3-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-3 victory, throwing his side a lifeline that was to be ruthlessly whipped away by Pavic and Mektic.
On a day that began with a minute’s silence following the death of Pier Francesco Parra, the Italian team’s long-serving doctor, disappointment at the outcome was counterbalanced by a sense of perspective. “What happened this night, it’s much more important than a simple competition,” said Sinner. “We knew our doctor well. He always was courageous and tried to give us strength somehow to stay in tough moments. We tried our best today.”