Davis Cup: Gojo offers Sonego and gives Croatia a surprise advantage

It’s a hell of a feeling. “Modest” 279th player in the world, Borna Gojo showered the Turin public on Monday by bringing Croatia the first point in the Davis Cup quarter-finals against Italy. He achieved a superb performance by disposing of Lorenzo Sonego, 27th in the ATP, in three sets (7-6, 2-6, 6-2) and 2:19 of play. The Croatian selection is thus only a victory of a qualification for the semi-finals of the team competition.

The second single will see Italian and Croatian numbers 1 face off against each other, Jannik Sinner (10th) and Marin Cilic, former world No.3 today 30th. Then the double will oppose the Italians Fabio Fognini and Simone Bolelli to the best world pair Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic. Which makes Italy’s mission much more delicate now.

Sonego liquefied in the 3rd set

Too unstable and too shy at the start of the match, Gojo (23) quickly found himself led 4-1, then faced with a 5-1 ball, and 5-3 in favor of Sonego. But the Croatian outsider gradually entered the game, until he flew over the decisive game by being much more enterprising and not hesitating to play forward. Sonego (27th, 26) then recovered in the second round, winning 6 games to 2.

But he again lost the thread quite early in the decisive set, broken at 2-1 and author of many unforced errors, more than thirty in total, like his last service game offered on a game board. Gojo. Italy and Croatia both won their two group stage matches last week. The other three quarter-finals, scheduled by Thursday, oppose Russia and Sweden, Great Britain and Germany, and Serbia and Kazakhstan.