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Croatian world No. 276 Borna Gojo arrived to this year's Davis Cup Finals confident he could play well against anyone. At the inaugural Davis Cup FInals in 2019, Gojo competed well against former world No. 1 Rafael Nadal but the Spaniard won 6-4 6-3.
"I played a match against Rafa where it was one break per set,” Gojo recalls. “At 4-4 I got nervous. But that gives you a lot of confidence: if you can hang in a match with Rafa, you can probably hang in with everyone else, almost.
On Thursday, Gojo clinched the biggest win of his season after he surprised Australia's Alexei Popyrin 7-6 (5) 7-5. “I've had kind of a tough year,” Gojo explained. “I got injured in Australia: first six, seven months, I was playing with an injury.
And that hurts you when you can't play 100 per cent, it hurts you mentally. “I just ended up having a having a tough year, but I know at any point that I can play with all these guys, and Davis Cup gave me that opportunity today.
I played a nice match and got a point for Croatia, so I'm very happy for that”.
Marin Cilic didn't expect Gojo to win
Afetr Gojo surprised Popyrin, Cilic beat Alex de Minaur in the following rubber to secure victory for Croatia.
“We were not actually expecting Borna to win today's match, so what a great effort from him,” Cilic said. “He won a match in Davis Cup against India last year, his first ever, and what a battle he had beating Popyrin in an extremely vital match for our group.
“Obviously, he's served incredibly well, close to 75% of his bombs. It was great to watch. But I have to say it was a tough battle. Alexei have more chances in general in the match, but things go like this. Borna is that kind of player: he serves big and can take these kind of matches”.