Nadal dethrones Croatia and puts Spain into last eight
Croatia’s hopes of retaining the Davis Cup are over after they were beaten by hosts Spain in Madrid.
Rafael Nadal ended Croatia’s reign as Davis Cup champions and put Spain into the quarter-finals after history was made in Germany’s clean sweep of Argentina on Wednesday.
Nadal sealed the hosts’ passage into the last eight at La Caja Magica with a 6-4 6-3 victory over Borna Gojo, the world number one’s 26th consecutive singles win in the competition.
That gave Spain a 2-0 lead and ensured Croatia could not finish above Russia in Group B due to Andrey Rublev’s defeat of Roberto Bautista Agut on Tuesday.
Bautista Agut earlier made amends for that loss by easing to a 6-1 6-3 thrashing of Nikola Mektic in the opening rubber on day three.
Germany made a dream start in Madrid, beating Argentina 3-0 with Philipp Kohlschreiber seeing off Guido Pella 1-6 6-3 6-4 and Jan-Lennard Struff a 6-3 7-6 (10-8) victor over Diego Schwartzman.
Kevin Krawietz and Andreas Mies put the icing on the cake against Maximo Gonzalez and Leonardo Mayer by winning the longest Davis Cup tie-break – taking the final set 7-6 (20-18).
HISTORY!
Kevin Krawietz and Andreas Mies win the longest ever #DavisCup tiebreak – points! – to seal a 6-7(4) 7-6(2) 7-6(18) victory over Argentina’s Maximo Gonzalez and Leonardo Mayer
#DavisCupMadridFinals pic.twitter.com/l1WroUa4IH
— Davis Cup (@DavisCup) November 20, 2019
Germany are top of Group C and denied Argentina the chance to seal a spot in the quarter-finals.
Andy Murray marked his first Davis Cup appearance in over three years with a hard-fought 6-7 (7-9) 6-4 7-6 (7-5) win over Tallon Griekspoor in Great Britain’s 2-1 Group E success over Netherlands.
Novak Djokovic eased past Yoshihito Nishioka 6-1 6-2 in Serbia’s 3-0 triumph over Japan, while Australia progressed after beating Belgium 2-1 and the United States edged Italy 2-1 in a clash between two nations already eliminated.
