Vrijeme je za slavlje, Hrvatska!

It’s time to celebrate, Croatia! 🎾

Croatia are the Davis Cup champions for the first time in 13 years – and just the second time in this proud nation’s history. The country’s president, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, is the team’s biggest fan.

On Sunday, playing on a red clay court set up inside Stade Pierre Mauroy in Lille in northern France, before a mostly partisan French crowd of 24,144 loud fans, Marin Cilic played steady and ruthless tennis for two hours and 19 minutes – owning his French opponent, Lucas Pouille, who was France’s last hope and inserted into the French line-up as a replacement for Jeremy Chardy. Perhaps, it was fitting that Cilic should be the one to clinch the crucial point in the best-of-five rubber tie for Croatia that earned it a well-deserved 3-1 victory over France in the Davis Cup by BNP Paribas Final. (By ITF rules, the final rubber was not played since Croatia clinched the title after the fourth rubber.)

Cilic, a former U.S. Open champion, who was leading by two sets against Argentina’s Juan Martín del Potro in the 2016 Final before his game collapsed, with Croatia leading by a 2-1 margin at home in Zagreb, lofted an inch-perfect winner that landed just inside the baseline on championship point. Soon, he was mobbed by his captain, Zeljko Krajan, and his teammates, one whom draped him in a Croatian flag, as the celebration began in the middle of the court.

Marin Cilic

“I’m happy I played so well this weekend,” said Cilic during an impromptu on-court interview shortly after his victory. Looking back, he and Borna Coric gave flawless performances during their singles rubbers than enabled Croatia to celebrate winning the 2018 Davis Cup title. Between them, they won nine out of nine sets on the red clay and neither player’s service was broken. Not once. This time, there were no meltdowns by Cilic. He took control of his destiny.

“It’s not every day that you become a world champion, an excited Cilic said after he beat Pouille, 7-6 (3), 6-3, 6-3, in the tie-clinching fourth rubber. “For us, it’s a dream come true. We are so passionate, you can see the fans are enjoying themselves. I feel that in Croatia, it’s going to be incredible, too.”

Later, in assessing his Sunday performance, which was his 29th career Davis Cup singles win and 39th overall (which includes doubles), Cilic said, “I thought Lucas started well in the first set and just a single point made the difference. After that, I played better and served better. I’m extremely proud of my performance.”

Krajan called this year’s championship squad “one of the best teams we ever had; it’s like a dream team.”

En route to lifting the Davis Cup trophy, Croatia began the 2018 season with a 3-1 first-round victory over Canada, and followed it with a 3-1 win over Kazakhstan in the quarterfinals. Then, the Croatians went the distance against the United States as Coric proved the difference by winning a five-set, fifth rubber that beat the Americans 3-2 in the semifinals. It advanced Croatia to face defending champion France in the finals.

After seven years, said Krajan, “it’s an honor for me to be here. My singles players not only didn’t lose a set, they didn’t lose serve in three matches, which is an unbelievable achievement. It shows you the quality that we produced.”

Meanwhile, France’s team captain, Yannick Noah, who closed the book on his third and final term at the helm of the French, was complimentary of Croatia despite being on the losing side in his last Davis Cup Final. Just a year ago, it was Noah and France who were lifting the Davis Cup trophy. This time, however, he said, “We lost to a better team. We did everything we could to be at this level with the Croatian team.”

Borna Coric

The difference makers during this year’s Davis Cup Final were Croatia’s Top 20 duo of Cilic and Coric. Each remained calm and cool – and, just as importantly, in control of their French opponents. Cilic mastered both Pouille and, earlier, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, while Coric set the tone for the entire weekend with an impressive straight-set win over an ineffective Chardy. Perhaps, winning it all provided Croatia some solace after losing the FIFA World Cup final to France last summer.

“The three matches Borna and I played shows how well we played and the level we produced,” the 30-year-old Cilic said. He kept his focus all the way to end when he finished off Pouille in straight sets, which ended any chance of a fairytale ending for France, trying to come back from a 2-1 deficit. “We were both in great form at the right time.”

Before he left Stade Pierre Mauroy for the last time, Noah congratulated Krajan and each Croatian player personally. It was a nice touch of sportsmanship. While it must have hurt deep down that he didn’t go out a winner in his last Davis Cup Final as France’s team captain, Noah remained upbeat and maintained a smile on his face. “We just went to their locker room to congratulate them,” he said. “I think they’re beautiful winners and they deserve it.”

Next year, the Davis Cup will enter a new era and be contested like a football World Cup during a one-week, 18-team tournament in Madrid, Spain, in November. The International Tennis Federation, the governing body of the Davis Cup, believes the new and overhauled format, with best-of-three-sets matches, will be more attractive to elite players – read: Djokovic, Nadal and Federer – who more often than not decline to represent their countries, citing a crowded schedule. For now, though, Croatia is the last team to win a Davis Cup Final in its historic home-and-away format.

Vrijeme je za slavlje, Hrvatska!

Photos: Courtesy of Google Images.

2017 Davis Cup: France's Noah made all the right moves

Raising La Coupe Davis / 2017 World Champions France

There's always so much pressure in France to win a Davis Cup. Especially, since a new generation of tennis "musketeers" featuring Gaël Monfils, Richard Gasquet, Gilles Simon and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga are in their prime and have once again made France a competitive team.

When Belgium's mighty ace, World No. 7 David Goffin, leveled the 2017 Davis Cup championship tie at two points apiece after beating Tsonga convincingly in straight sets, 7-6 (5), 6-3, 6-2, in the opening reverse singles on Sunday afternoon, many of the 25,000-plus passionate French fans who packed Stade Pierre-Mauroy in Lille, France – just a few kilometers from the Belgian border – must have felt a collective, sinking feeling that their hopes of winning the Coupe Davis was slipping away for another year – again.

Imagine, the difficult decision that French captain Yannick Noah – the last Frenchman to win a Grand Slam when he triumphed at the 1983 French Open – faced in deciding to insert 23-year-old Lucas Pouille in the decisive fifth rubber instead of the more experienced Gasquet, 31. After all, Pouille was taken down by Goffin in Friday's first singles rubber, and Gasquet teamed with Pierre-Hugues Herbert to win Saturday's doubles rubber over Ruben Bemelmans and Joris De Loore in four sets after having never previously played together.

Thus, for the second straight year, the Davis Cup championship came down to a fifth and final rubber. The winner takes home the Davis Cup. The loser gets parting gifts from the ITF and handshakes from the winners. So, there was just a little pressure riding on the outcome of the final tennis match of the year.

Looking back, Noah's decision proved brilliant – the right one. Pouille, ranked No. 18 in the world and born just 75km from Lille, beat an overmatched Steve Darcis, 6-3, 6-1, 6-0, in just one hour and 34 minutes. Pouille showed his dominance in the final set by winning 25 of 34 points against the No. 76 Darcis. Leave it to the captain to be the first to sprint out on court to hug and congratulate Pouille. The rest of the joyful French team soon followed.

After 16 years of struggle and frustration – including losing each of the past three finals (2002, 2010, 2014) it competed in – France finally won its 10th Davis Cup championship. It was their first title since they beat Australia in 2001. France drew even with Great Britain, but still trails the U.S., which has won the Davis Cup a record 32 times and second-place Australia with 28. Belgium, which lost the 2015 final to Great Britain, is still looking for its first Davis Cup title.

Yannick Noah leads a lively rendition of "La Marseillaise."

Cue up the "La Marseillaise!" Never has a winning French team and its fan sung France's national anthem more proudly than they did during the awards ceremony in Lille.

Asked to describe the feeling of winning the Davis Cup, Pouille said during an English-language TV interview following his clinching victory, "No words needed. We have finally won it.

"There's nothing better than winning as a team, with my mates, in front of the fans, my family and my friends. We're going to celebrate and make the most of it. I'm proud of my team."

Speaking for Belgium, Goffin, who improved to 21-3 in singles rubbers with his pair of wins over Pouille and Tsonga – his team's only point points during the tie – said: "It's a disappointment even if I played two good matches. When the team loses we're all disappointed. We gave it our all. It's tough to finish this way, but we did a lot of good things as a team this year."

So, too, did France, and it marked the third Davis Cup victory as captain for Noah, who came back in 2015 for a third stint as France's Davis Cup captain after he skippered his country's team twice in the 1990s – winning in 1991 and 1996.

Shortly after Pouille's clinching victory, Noah described what it all meant for France during a television interview. "It was a beautiful adventure," he said. "We had eight, nine players capable of playing. We had a terrific team spirit. It was really beautiful to win.

"We played for people we love. I'm very proud for my team."

Looking back, France, which advanced to the championship tie against Belgium with victories over Japan, Great Britain and Serbia, won with a committed group of players. Everyone understood and accepted their roles on the team – and this French squad showed its strength in numbers. Plus, Noah backed Pouille from the beginning despite his opening-day loss to Goffin. He would have been unmercifully second-guessed if France had been swept in the reverse singles after entering the final day ahead 2-1. Instead, it turned out to be a beautiful adventure, just as Noah pictured it. Looking ahead, Pouille's definitely the future of French tennis.

Vive la France!

Photos: Courtesy of ITF Davis Cup Twitter feed.