On Sunday, Croatia advanced to the Davis Cup quarterfinals after Nino Serdarušić defeated Hungary’s Fabian Maroszan 6-4, 6-4 in the first match against Hungary.
Two breaks were enough to win, one in each set, for Serdarušić, who is 233rd in the ATP ranking. The match lasted an hour and 11 minutes.
The Croatian tennis player was safe from the beginning; he served seven aces and won two of three break points. Maroszan, the 359th tennis player in the world, made 15 unforced errors in the match.
Marin Čilić suffered the shock defeat of the day against the 282nd tennis player in the world, Zsombor Piros.
Čilić and Piros played the second match (Hungary’s best Márton Fucsovics withdrew due to injury). Still, the 282nd tennis player in the world proved to be an insurmountable obstacle for the great Croatian tennis player. But it wasn’t that way at the start of the match. Marin led 5:2 and served for the set, but Piros returned at 5:5 to win the first set.
The second set was equal until the 11th game when Piros broke Čilić and easily served for 7:5.
Čilić started the third set well, served for 3:1 after which he increased it to 4:1, but Piros came back at 4:3 and for the second time broke Čilić for the 5:4 lead. Finally, in the last game, Čilić managed to save five match points, but Piros won in the end.
Nikola Mektić and Mate Pavić played Fábián Marozsán and Péter Nagy in the doubles clash. The best doubles team in the world won both sets (7:6, 6:2) to confirm Croatia’s spot in the quarterfinals.
Croatia finished at the top of the group and will play against Italy in Turin on Monday.
Source: Sportske Novosti
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