Marin Cilic wins Davis Cup for Croatia, France loses
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the 16-team world group established in 1981 will be scrapped next year in favor of an 18-nation world cup-style finals week that will take place in madrid1 marin cilic clinched for croatia their second davis cup title by crushing frances lucas pouille 7-63 6-3 6-3 to give his side a decisive 3-1 lead and the trophy1 he gave the 24-year-old pouille little chance of extending the last final in the 118-year-old competitions current guise into a deciding fifth rubber1 pouille did not have a single break point1 in spite of pushing cilic hard in the first set he lost the last four points of the tiebreak and never threatened a comeback1 cilic wasted four set points when pouille battled back from 0-40 down at 2-5 in the second set but with his own serve rock-solid he calmly moved into a two-set lead1 the mainly french 22000 crowd kept roaring their support for pouille but it was the croatia contingent decked out in their distinctive red and white who would soon be celebrating1 cilic broke for a 3-2 lead in the third set and then closed in for the kill when pouille served at 3-51 the frenchman saved two match points from 0-40 but cilic would not be denied and finished it off with a delightful lob1 immediately the 30-year-old former u.s. open champion was swamped by a swarm of his team mates as croatia could begin the party after emulating their triumph of 20051 croatias sports-mad president kolinda grabar-kitarovic was among the fans at courtside to savour a landmark title1 it offered though a measure of consolation after france beat croatia in this years football world cup final1 its not every day that you become a world champion cilic draped in a croatian flag said on court1 for us its a dream come true for this nation. you can see the fans are so passionate and they are here enjoying themselves. in croatia its going to be incredible too1 whatever happens in the future croatias win will have a special place in the record books as this was the last one on one final before the competition undergoes a major revamp1 at lilles stade pierre mauroy on sunday the powerful world number seven was relentless as he snuffed out any hope of a famous french fightback1 hosts and defending champions france had begun the day holding out hope of becoming the first team to overturn a 2-0 deficit in the final since australia beat the u.s. in 19391 but there was to be no fairytale ending for french captain yannick noah in his last match in charge of les bleus1 noah had surprisingly left pouille the highest-ranked player in his team out of fridays opening singles matches1 the gamble backfired as jeremy chardy was hammered by borna coric and cilic beat jo-wilfried tsonga1 after nicolas mahut and pierre-hugues herbert won saturdays doubles to keep the tie alive noah restored pouille in a bid to take down croatian talisman cilic1 he hung on grimly in the first set saving a break point at 4-4 with a beautiful dropshot1 cilic twice held serve to stay in the opener and then struck in the tiebreak1 he opened a 5-3 lead then latched onto a pouille serve to crush a forehand winner before converting his first set point with a dropshot of his own1 an animated noah was up and down out of his seat firing up his man and the crowd1 in contrast his opposite number zeljko krajan sat back and let cilic go calmly about his business1 cilics weight of shot allowed him to break decisively in the fifth game of the second set1 he squandered a two-set lead in the fourth rubber of the final against argentinas juan martin del potro in 2016 a defeat that cost croatia the title1 yet he was never going to let pouille off the hook1 and when he broke the frenchmans serve at 2-2 in the third any lingering belief pouille had retained quickly ebbed away1