Defending champions Croatia out as Nadal leads Spain to win
RAFAEL NADAL’S Spain eased into the quarter-finals of the Davis Cup on home soil while Novak Djokovic helped Serbia make a fast start to their campaign.
It was nearly 2am on Wednesday morning when Spain completed victory over Russia but they made much shorter work of a severely-weakened Croatia in the evening to send the defending champions tumbling out.
Croatia’s chance took a major hit with the withdrawal pre-event of Marin Cilic, and they were also without Borna Coric on Wednesday.
Doubles specialist Nikola Mektic had to play singles against Roberto Bautista Agut, losing 6-1 6-3, before home hero Nadal saw off Borna Gojo 6-4 6-3.
While the main arena was again rocking for Spain’s tie, it was a different story in the morning for Serbia’s clash with Japan, but Djokovic shrugged off the lack of atmosphere in a speedy 6-1 6-2 victory over Yoshihito Nishioka.
That secured the most comfortable of victories after Filip
Krajinovic had earlier beaten Yuichi Sugita 6-2 6-4, with the doubles team of Janko Tipsarevic and Viktor Troicki completing a 3-0 whitewash.
The radical changes to the event have been the hot topic of conversation and Djokovic voiced his hopes that the Davis Cup and ATP Cup will eventually merge.
Germany sprang a surprise by beating Argentina 3-0 to give themselves a great chance of reaching the quarter-finals.
Philipp Kohlschreiber recovered from a set down to defeat Guido Pella 1-6 6-3 6-4 while JanLennard Struff was a 6-3 7-6 (8) winner over Diego Schwartzman.
Kevin Krawietz and Andreas Mies then won the longest tiebreak in Davis Cup history, taking the deciding set 20-18 against Maximo Gonzalez and Leonardo Mayer.