(Tennis news) The Davis Cup came to an end yesterday as Russia triumphed over Croatia to win their third title. Even though Russia was the most powerful team, there were many others who played well above their expectations to give their country crucial points. Given below are some of the notable performances from the Davis Cup this year.

Borna Gojo: Croatia

Borna was arguably the hero for Croatia as the world number 279 was making his second appearance at the Davis Cup. He won three matches this time and three of them were against opponents ranked in the top 70. His best win came against Italy in the quarterfinals as he was up against world number 27 Lorenzo Sonego in the first match.

In the first set, Sonego was 4-1, 40-30 until Borna took three consecutive games to level the score. Sonego held his serve the next game as Borna did the same as it went to a tiebreaker and after more than an hour, Borna took the set. Sonego hit back in the second set but in the third set Borna took hold of an early break as he fell on the court when he won the match which was crucial for Croatia.

Feliciano Lopez: Spain

Feliciano Lopez was up against Andrey Rublev in the final match of Spain against Russia in group A. Lopez had made his ATP debut in 1997, a month before Andrey Rublev was born. Rublev was the favourite as he was a top ranked player who was known for his hard hitting while Lopez had to play the singles as their top three players could not play this time. The last time Lopez played a singles match was in 2019 against Edmund Kyle and the last time he won was in 2016 when he defeated Ramkumar Ramanathan.

Lopez style is serve and volley which has died out in recent years and Rublev played from the baseline with his rocket shots. Lopez lost the first set but when the clock struck an hour, Lopez took the second one as his volleys kept getting better and Rublev could not find a way past him. In an hour and 45 minutes, Lopez gave Spain their first point in the tie but a surprise win for Russia in the doubles gave them the spot in the knockout phase.

Zsombor Piros: Hungary

Piros was playing in his third Davis Cup and had beaten John Millman in the opening tie against Australia. In the second tie, he was up against a much higher ranked opponent as Croatia’s Marin Cilic had experience too in his hand. Piros lost the first as his comeback was too late but in the next set his grunts kept getting louder and his shots were finding the target as the scores were level. In the third set, it looked over for Piros as he was down 1-4 but took the next five games in one of the best matches at the tournament.

Mikhail Kukushkin: Kazakhstan

Kukushkin has been representing Kazakhstan in the Davis Cup since 2008. Kukushkin had lost the first match in the group stage against Sweden but won the second one as the team progressed into the quarterfinals against Serbia. Kukushkin was up against Mimoir Kecmanovic who was ranked more than 100 places above him, Kukushkin took the opening set and was leading 4-2 in the second until Kecmanovic took the next four games to deny him a straight set win.

In the final set, Kecmanovic took a 5-3 lead and had two match points which Kukushkin saved like a true tennis veteran and went to save another two. After 3 hours and 23 points in the final set tie breaker, Kukushkin finally won the match to give Kazakhstan an edge over Serbia but lost the doubles match as it couldn’t enter the last four.

Also read: Russian team looking stronger than ever with third Davis Cup title