Chile achieved its first ATP Cup victory after beating Serbia 2-1, although the national squad was left with no chance of advancing to the tournament semifinals.
In the first duel of the day, Alexander Tabilo (139th of the ATP ranking) could not avoid the defeat against Serbian Filip Krajinovic (42nd) and ended up falling with partial 6-4, 3-6 and 7-6 (5).
In the first set, the unevenness in favor of the Balkans came in the seventh game. There the European was better positioned than Tabilo and took advantage of the only break opportunity that the Chilean gave him to go 4-3 up.
The national tennis player tried to turn the result, but did not succeed and ended up falling in the first set 6-4. Already in the second, the panorama began complex for the Chilean, as he suffered the loss of his first service.
Despite this, he was not discouraged and ended up recovering it in the room game to place the 2-2 and another in the sixth allowed him to stay with a 4-2 advantage. From then on, it was enough for the second national racket to keep the service to close the set 6-3.
In the third and final, and after two breaks for each, the duel had to be defined in the tie break. There Krajinovic was the most accurate and ended up taking the se 7-6 (5).
With this result, Chile was left with no chance of advancing to the ATP Cup semifinals. After the 3-0 defeat against Spain in the debut, the national squad was supposed to win all three points against Serbia..
With this in mind, Christian Garin (17th) came out to face the second duel against Dusan Lajovic (33rd) and ended up equalizing the confrontation after beating the Balkan 4-6, 6-4 and 3-0 after the retirement of his rival.
After an uneven start to a seven-break set, it was Lajovic who made the fewest mistakes and ended up sealing 6-4 in his favor. In the next set, both tennis players improved their services and Garin was able to hit the blow only in the ninth game to break the rival and be 5-4 up and with his serve he equalized the match.
Already in the defining set, and when the Chilean was 3-0 up, the Serbian had to leave the competition due to physical complications.
Thus, the winner of the clash between Serbia and Chile had to be defined in the doubles. Tomás Barrios and Alejandro Tabilo faced Nikola Cacic and Matej Sabanov. Here the South American couple won 6-4, 3-6 and 10-7.
At the close of Group A, the nationals will have to face Norway on Wednesday, January 5.
