By Ricky Dimon
It’s safe to say that Russia is the capital of the tennis world right now.
Already champions of the ATP Cup and Billie Jean King Cup in 2021, the Russians captured the Davis Cup title on Sunday afternoon in Madrid.
Andrey Rublev and Daniil Medvedev swept the two singles matches against Croatia in straight sets, thus preventing the underdog Croats from extending the final to a doubles rubber–in which they would have been favored with Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic. Rublev kicked off the proceedings with a 6-4, 7-6(5) victory over surprising Davis Cup star Borna Gojo before Medvedev won the clincher by beating Marin Cilic 7-6(7), 6-2.
Although Gojo did well to stay competitive in the opener, Rublev was in control the whole way. The world No. 5 did not face a single break point while earning eight opportunities of his own, converting one. Rublev played only 36 points on serve in the entire match; Gojo was forced to play 62 service points.
In the second rubber, Medvedev saved the only break point he faced. That helped the world No. 2 force a tiebreaker in the first set, which he took on his third set point at 8-7–having previously missed chances at 6-5 and 7-6 (the latter with a double-fault). It was all but over when Medvedev broke for 3-1 in the second, and another break at 5-2 clinched the title in style.
“It feels amazing,” Medvedev assured. “But I’m more happy for the team than for myself. We have an amazing team; amazing atmosphere. I’m happy to be part of it and bring the points we need. It’s never easy to come here at the end of the season, but they were some of the best weeks of my career.”
“Team competition is always special,” Rublev agreed. “Normally we don’t have much time to spend together. These kind of competitions, we have to be together almost every day, eat together, have breakfast together, spend time together. This is something special that we are missing that we don’t really have time to do. These kind of events, they give us this chance. It’s a great feeling because then you have a lot of memories. This is the most important thing.”
Medvedev and Rublev went a combined 10-1 in singles throughout the Davis Cup Finals. Russia was pushed to a deciding doubles match only by host Spain during Group A round-robin competition, but Rublev and Aslan Karatsev won it in three sets over Feliciano Lopez and Marcel Granollers.
This is Russia’s first Davis Cup title since 2006 and third all time.
Ricky contributes to10sballs.com and also maintains his own tennis website, The Grandstand. You can follow him on twitter at @Dimonator.