SYDNEY, Jan. 6 (Xinhua) -- Croatia beat Poland 2-1 in the ATP Cup in Sydney on Monday to secure their second victory of the tournament.
In the first match Kamil Majchrzak was set to play against veteran Marin Cilic, but he was replaced by the 20-year-old Kacper Zuk due to an injury. The youngster turned out to be a worthy opponent for Cilic, especially in the first set, but the Croat was able to handle the pressure and won the game 7-6(8), 6-4.
Poland recovered from a slow start thanks to Hubert Hurkacz, who dominated Borna Coric 6-2, 6-2. In both sets the Pole found himself trailing early but fought back both times to seal the game comfortably. The massive Hurkacz's win came as somewhat of a surprise as just two days ago Coric had beaten world No. 4 Dominic Thiem.
"This was one of the best matches I have played. Borna is a great player and I had to play very well to beat him. Now hopefully we can play our best tennis in the doubles match and win this," commented Hurkacz during his on-court interview with ATP tennis.
However, it was Croatia who had the last word in the encounter. Hubert Hurkacz and Lukasz Kubot failed to contain Ivan Dodig and Nikola Mektic in the doubles. The favorites won 6-2, 6-1 to lead the Croats to their second triumph at the ATP Cup.
"There are some days when you feel just great on the court, like we felt today many things were going our way. And then also comes those kinds of shots that I played, the things when you wake up and you just have a great day. We had it today. I'm happy it was the deciding match and that we managed to play on the high level today on deciding point", said Ivan Dodig.
Poland have no chance to advance into the quarterfinals after two defeats, having lost their opening game 2-1 to Argentina.
The ATP Cup runs from January 3 to 12, with the group stage matches being played across three cities - Perth, Brisbane and Sydney - and the finals to be played in Sydney alone.
Teams from 24 countries battle through the group stage - versing each country in their pool in two singles and a doubles match - to reach the final eight, in a format similar to that of the football World Cup.
