2021 has been a successful year for the Russian tennis team. After the ATP Cup victory in January, they won their third Davis Cup on Sunday (December 5th) by beating Croatia.
With Daniil Medvedev, world No. 2 and winner of the US Open, Andrey Rublev, 5e world, Aslan Karatsev, 18e, and Karen Khachanov, 29e, the Russians had arguably the strongest team on paper. They confirmed it on the ground. On Sunday, in the final, they won both singles: Rublev beat Borna Gojo (279e) 6-4, 7-6 (7/5) and Medvedev defeated Marin Cilic (30e) 7-6 (9/7), 6-2. The double was without stake, and fortunately for the Russians.
Because in this competition in three games, the double, their weak point, could have been decisive in the event of defeat of one of the two Russians in singles. And Croatia have the best pair in the world with Mate Pavic and Nikola Mektic, Olympic champions and Wimbledon winners in 2021.
No national flag
Rublev and Karatsev – whom the world discovered at the Australian Open earlier this year with his run to the semi-finals where he only gave in to future champion Novak Djokovic – won the only match decisive they had to win during the competition: the one against Spain in the group stage, which allowed Russia to qualify for the quarter-finals.
Against Mektic and Pavic, who did not give up their throw-in once during the tournament, their chances were very low. But Rublev and Medvedev secured the victory before, as in the semi-final where the double against the Germans Pütz / Krawietz represented a likely fatal pitfall.
Gojo, revelation of the competition with victories in particular over Sonego (27e) and Lajovic (33e), did not explode under the blows of Rublev as the German Dominik Koepfer had done in the semi-finals. But in the end he did not do better since the point of the game went to the Russian, who did not concede a single break point.
It remained for Medvedev to conclude. Cilic, however, put up a resistance that the Russian had never encountered since the start of the tournament. Especially in the first set, because after the loss of the tie-break, the Croatian was clearly more dominated.
No national flag, a team called the Russian Tennis Federation, the Piano Concerto No. 1 by Tchaikovsky as an anthem because of the sanctions linked to doping in Russian sport, as in 2002 and 2006 … But it is in Moscow that the silver bowl will leave.