ATP Cup: Dennis Novak misses surprise against Marin Cilic - Croatia leads 1-0
Dennis Novak narrowly missed a surprise in the ATP Cup international match against Croatia. The Austrian lost to Marin Cilic 7: 6 (4), 3: 6 and 4: 6. You can read about the game in our live ticker .
by Nikolaus Fink
last edit: Jan 04, 2020, 10:39 am
At first, Cilic seemed to quickly do justice to his favorite role, dominated the game and quickly found his first breakball. However, Novak fended off the score at 1: 2 and then got better and better into the game.
In the seventh game, Novak had the first chance to take the serve from his Croatian opponent. Cilic pulled his head out of the noose with an ace on the second serve.
Cilic strikes at the crucial moment in sentence two
An open match developed in which Novak was able to fend off a Cilics set ball. So it went into the tie-break, in which the Austrian unpacked some unbelievable blows and consequently the quick decision won for himself.
Fired up by team captain Thomas Muster, Novak also got off to a good start in the second round. The World Ranking 108. was now the better player, but Cilic was able to stay in the game with his strong serve - and struck just at the score of 4: 4. Subsequently, the world ranking list 39, now playing better again. Serve for sentence compensation.
Can Thiem equalize?
The 2014 US Open winner took the momentum from the second round with him, but missed a break opportunity in the third game of the decisive set. At 3: 3, Cilic took his opponent's serve. Novak was now visibly battered and despite a possibility in the last game there was no way to break Cilic - so the Croatian finally went 6: 7 (4), 6: 4 and 6: 4 winner.
Croatia is 1-0 up against Austria. It is now up to Dominic Thiem to make up the balance. The fourth in the world rankings is dealing with Borna Coric. The game is live on ServusTV and in our live ticker .