2010 Davis Cup Cro - Ecu Match5

Third and closing day of 2010 Davis Cup 1st round World Group match between Croatia and Ecuador in Varazdin. After Antonio Veic (CRO) defeated Julio-Cezar Campozano (ECU), Croatia led by straight 4-0 lead against the Ecuador DC tennis team.

Let's enjoy another excellent photo coverage by Zrinka Astrida Hrženjak! Right click on any picture to enlarge it in another tab or window!

Closing match brought the duel of two Ivans. Croatia was represented by Ivan Dodig, playing versus Ivan Endara representing Ecuador tennis team.

Both players presented the respective assortiment of strokes, solid baseline play, Dodig being more agressive and accurate in his play, converting net attacks to points.

Ivan Endara from Ecuador was under havy pressure from the very start of the match, not only from his opponent, but also in a need to get at least that one honnorary point to Ecuador. That ways he commited a couple of more unforced errors than his Croatian opponent.

Naturally, Dodig was playing with no pressure at all, but with a great desire to win his first Davis Cup single and thank in the best possible way to Croatian coach Goran Prpić for inviting him into Davis Cup team.

The audience gave strong support to domestic player, being his best aide in setting ever more pressure at Ivan Endara.

The presence of far more experienced fellow team players, like Marin Cilic and Ivo Karlovic, helped Dodig to sustain his selfconfidence from opening point till the match point, and win in two straight sets: 6-1, 6-3, breaking many times his opponent's serve and not loosing the grip of the match!

The final score: Croatia vs. Ecuador 5-0 reflects the present difference between two teams. Ecuador had it's chances in a first day first rubber, when Nicholas Lapentti turned 1-0 set lead into his 2-1 set lead against Ivo Karlovic. But, as Croatian "Giant from Salata" rose his play, the best Ecuadorian player could not do anything more, than winnint these two sets.

It is to commend the very high level of sportsmanship, displayed in the match! Very important element in today's professional sport.

The city of Varazdin, along with officials of Croatian Tennis Association and ITF, organized this great sports event at an level of excellence. All we can hope for is that Varazdin gets more such events to organize in the times ahead.

The match referee and both of the chair umpires also did good job, being hardly visible, but steady and firm in their decisions.

The final conclusion: It was a great sport's event by any standards that will be hard to beat in organizational way.

The next Davis Cup round will take place in Jully.

Croatian team will got to another quarterfinals and will try to reach semifinals once more. The hard opponent will be Serbia, lead by Novak Djokovic, currently the No. 2 on ATP World Rankings. We will see in Spaladium Arena in Split, Croatia from 9th to 11th Jully the interesting duel of teams that will play one against another for the first time in the history of Davis Cup.

And the team of Ecuador will be at challenge in play-offs for staying in the World Group of 16 best teams for the second year in a row.