Davis Cup: Cilic fires Croatia past France into final

On Friday, Croatian Cilic beat rising Lucas Pouille 6-1 7-6 (4) 2-6 6-2, and brought a point to his country in the Davis Cup semi-final tie beetwen Croatia and France.

The win gave Croatia a 2-1 lead in the tie after the two sides split the opening singles on Friday.

Pella beat Kyle Edmund 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-3, 6-2, meaning the Argentines can clinch victory with a day to spare in Glasgow if they win the doubles on Saturday. Now tasked with serving out the set, he was unable to do so, Gasquet breaking on his third chance of the game. “It’s been a dream weekend for us, I played incredible tennis”.

He took command in the second set, securing consecutive breaks and holding for a 5-1 lead. With the match outcome no longer in doubt, Coric surrendered his serve one last time in a meek display as Gasquet ran out a deserved victor, the Croat winning just two points in his final three service games. Cilic breezed through the second set and after he broke in the first game of the third, there was not much hope left for Gasquet.

In New Delhi, Feliciano Lopez claimed a four-set victory over India’s Ramkumar Ramanathan to give Spain a 1-0 lead after the first singles match of their Davis Cup World Group playoff yesterday.

France started brightly and quietened the home fans at the Kresimir Cosic Hall in Zadar.

“I felt the intensity of the match especially in the first two sets”, Cilic said. I produced an excellent performance for all the crowd.

“We played so many ties away, we had been waiting to play at home and now we just won in front of our home crowd it’s awesome”, said Croatia captain Zeljko Krajan.

An injury-hit France, without Gael Monfils and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga due to knee complaints, got off the mark thanks to Gasquet’s 6-2 7-6 (5) 6-1 triumph in Zadar.

Gasquet leads the 2014 US Open champion 2-1 in their career head-to-heads.
Pouille is then scheduled to face Borna Coric in what could be Sunday’s deciding rubber.
The victor plays Britain or Argentina in the final.

After three matches played, Croatia has a 2-1 lead over France.