The illusions of the Argentine team that leads William Coria They began to collapse early at the Unipol Arena in Bologna with the fall of Báez, 37th in the ATP world ranking, against Gojo (164) 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 in the first point of the series which lasted for one hour and 59 minutes.
After that defeat came Francisco Cerúndolo (27) against Borna Coric (26), the best racket of the Balkans, by a tight 6-4 and 7-6 (8-6) in a high-voltage match that lasted two hours and 10 minutes.
The series concluded with the doubles match that was also colored Croatian because Mate Pavic and Nikola Mektic defeated Horacio Zeballos and Máximo González 6-2 and 7-5 after an hour and 13 minutes of play.
Argentina did not have a good week in Bologna as they lost all three series they played and did not meet the goal that “Wizard” Coria and the tennis players had set for themselves when they left Buenos Aires, which was to qualify for the quarterfinals to be played in Malaga, Spain, from November 22 to 27.
The low form of the team’s main racket, Diego Schwartzman (17) conspired against Argentina’s chances, since both Cerúndolo and Báez are two inexperienced tennis players and the only ones who were up to the task were the doubles players, Zeballos from Mar del Plata and “Machi” González from Tandil.
Argentina began its participation in Group A with an unexpected defeat against Sweden (2-1) last Tuesday, on Friday it lost again to Italy (2-1) in a result that was predictable, and on this day it did not even manage to win a point against the Croats.
In the general balance, the only two victories for Argentina in the games they played were contributed by Zeballos and “Machi” González, one against Sweden and the other against Italy, while the singles players lost all the ones they played.
The defining day against the Croats, who are practically qualified for the quarterfinals, began with the defeat of Báez, who performed well below expectations and was surprised by Gojo.
Báez’s match was decided in favor of the Croatian who was not going to play the series in Bologna, but had to enter the starting line-up due to the injury that sidelined Marin Cilic (16) after the US Open.
The first set of the match went to Gojo, who took it without too much effort, with good serve games against an erratic Argentine and strangely without fighting for points, without giving that fight that always characterizes him.
The Balkan broke to take a 2-0 lead after a pair of forehands outside Báez and then stretched to 3-0 on serve, eventually taking the set 6-1 in just 25 minutes.
With the Croatian fine with his service and the Argentine unable to find a way to damage it, the signs were very bad, but that was reversed in the second set.
Báez adjusted the return, that allowed him to achieve his first break of serve to take a 5-3 lead, also helped by the Croatian who missed a volley and committed two double faults, and then controlled with his serve to close for 6-3 and leave the equal match.
In the third set, Báez was supposed to gain the necessary confidence to win the match but the opposite happened and his level dropped, something that has been happening to him often, in fact he has 10 consecutive losses between Davis and the circuit.
The Croatian, a tennis player accustomed to the Challenger circuit, remained solid with his serve and took advantage of the Argentine’s errors to break 4-2 and then kept going without any shocks to decorate the scoreboard 6-3.
With no margin for error, “Fran” Cerúndolo came out to play in the second match of his Davis Cup career, after his debut 24 hours ago with a defeat against the Italian Jannik Sinner (11).
Between the enormous pressure of Cerúndolo and the higher category of Coric, champion last August of the Masters 1000 in Cincinnati, there was a logical match in favor of the European.
Coric broke Cerúndolo from the start and supported by a very powerful serve, both the first and the second, and a lot of solidity in the decisive points, he took the opening set 6-4 in 51 minutes.
Cerúndolo, very feisty, never gave in and tried to cause problems for the Croatian with the power of his forehand, something he achieved during several passages of the match and that made the definition stretch into a tie break.
In the tie break, Coric served better, with power, spin and many variants, thus resolving the victory without being startled with the second match point he had, with a serve to the “T” and then a forehand definition going up to the net to close the point and victory.
The Croats celebrated because they have cleared the classification (it would be complicated if Sweden beat Italy 3-0 tomorrow), while the Argentines left with their heads down, upset because they made too many mistakes during the series against Sweden that left them with no margin for error, in a fall that was conceived before the closure against the Balkans.
