Davis Cup: Croatia beats Ecuador 3-0

Marin Cilic and Ivo Karlovic won their doubles tennis match to seal a 3-0 win over Ecuador.

Cilic and Karlovic defeated Nicolas and Giovanni Lapentti 7-6 6-3 7-5 today to advance to the Davis Cup quarterfinals.

“Even I didn’t expect it to be that easy,” coach Goran Prpic said. “This gives us a confidence to believe that we can move further than last year,” he added.

Croatia will next face either Serbia or the United States. Serbia led 2-1 ahead of Sunday’s reverse singles.

The Croats were broken to give Ecuador a 1-0 lead in the second set before winning four games in a row to take control for good.

“When we won first set, we relaxed,” Karlovic said.

The reverse singles, in which youngsters Dodig and Veic will play for Croatia, are scheduled for Sunday.

“It wasn’t one-way traffic in the doubles, it was as tough as we expected it to be and we are overjoyed to have secured a berth in the last eight,” Cilic said in a courtside interview.

“Sunday’s reverse singles will be a great chance for our second-tier players Antonio Veic and Ivan Dodig to impress and we hope the fans will turn up in numbers once again to cheer them on,” he added.

Croatia team captain Goran Prpic praised Ecuador’s brave resistance and congratulated his players for their efforts.

“We got into our stride once we started returning serve to the best of our abilities and we now have a good chance of emulating last season’s success, when we reached the semifinals of the competition,” he said.

“A quarterfinal clash at home with Serbia looks on the cards and if we meet them it will be a delicately balanced tie.”


Source Davis Cup and Reuter
Photo AP