Croatia and South Africa’s returning stars have kept them in the hunt for finals action at the ATP Cup with important wins on the fourth day of competition.
Marin Cilic, who dipped to No.38 in the world after an knee injury-curtailed 2019, was scratchy but showed his class with a 7-6 (10-8) 6-4 victory over Poland’s Kacper Zuk in Sydney.
The Croatians surprisingly dropped their second singles rubber when Borna Coric was outclassed by Hubert Hurkacz 6-2 6-2 but the combination of Ivan Dodig and Nikola Mektic were far too good for Hurkacz and Lukasz Kubot, 6-2 6-1.
“If I have to pick some things that I need to do better, it’s just converting breakpoints. I had a lot of them,” said 2014 US Open champion Cilic.
“But otherwise, I felt that the level was quite good. I was being aggressive.”
The tie takes Croatia to 2-0 for the tournament and in good shape to take out Group E.
South Africa’s position in Group A is more tenuous but after dominant singles wins against Chile and a doubles victory to make it 3-0, they can still make the final eight.
Lloyd Harris got the ball rolling in Brisbane with a 6-4 6-4 victory over Nicolas Jarry before the impressive Kevin Anderson downed Cristian Garin 6-0 6-3.
It has been an encouraging return to court for former US Open and Wimbledon finalist Anderson who also sat out the back half of last year with a knee injury.
The 33-year-old had pushed world No.2 Novak Djokovic to two tiebreak sets in the opening tie against Serbia and was on-song against the rising Chilean who took a medical time out in the first set.
A former world No.5 , Anderson dropped to No.147 in the world off the back of the injury but when entries were taken for the Australian Open last year he was still under the 104 ranking cutoff for direct entry to Melbourne Park.
Unseeded, he’s expected to present plenty of problems for anyone who encounters him at the season-opening grand slam.
South Africa are 1-1 in Group A, and will likely need to progress as one of the best-performed second placed teams given the Novak Djokovic-led Serbia are in their pool.
Japan are 1-0 up in their tie against Georgia in Perth.
Monday night’s ties see Austria v Argentina, Spain v Uruguay and Serbia v France.