Rublev defeats Gojo, Russia one match away from Davis Cup victory

In a packed arena in Madrid Andrey Rublev took on Borna Gojo in the first match of the Davis Cup Finals final. Rublev was the heavy favorite ahead of the match considering he was ranked as number 5 in the world while Gojo is way outside the top 100 but the difference in the match was much smaller than that. Gojo has been playing very good tennis all Davis Cup and that did not change today.

The Croatian relied on his strong serve and fairly confident baseline play to duel Rublev in a match where there was not much variety. Points were similar and mostly won by the more consistent player. For the most part, it was Rublev. The Russian had break points early in the match but failed to use them. He simply continued applying pressure eventually finding a break.

Read also

Davis Cup Finals schedule, results and rankings (Last Update 05-12 Russia win title)

On his own serve, he did not have any issues and did not allow a single break point in the first set. The 2nd set was a very similar one but this time around Gojo served slightly better. Once again Rublev applied a tone of pressure on Gojoj but the Croatian handled it well every time. Gojo saved 5 break points in the 2nd set en route to the tiebreak which is a fun one.

Rublev set the tone early in that one taking a 3-1 lead that became a 4-2 lead after that. Gojo was actually able to turn it around to 5-4 after some bad misses by Rublev but the Russian once again proved he was the better player closing it out with 7-5. A great win for Rublev who did not allow a single break point in the very solid performance.