After the first day of the 2016 Davis Cup final, Croatia and Argentina are even.

Cilic – Delbonis

Even if Marin was the hot favorite to bring the first point to his team against the world no. 41 Federico Delbonis, things were not easy for the Croat. After Marin won the first two sets, he imploded from the 7th game of the 3rd set (3-3) to lose 9 of the following ten games. Therefore, the encounter went to the 5th set when Cilic broke Delbonis in the very first game to win the match 6-3 7-5 3-6 1-6 6-2.

After the match, Marin commented

“I struggled on my return. His toss on his serve is a bit specific, and it gave me problems. I never said the match would be easy. After all, this is the final.”

Del Potro – Karlovic

Delpo edged an ever-dangerous Ivo Karlovic in the second match. The Argentine had a pretty clean win after he broke Ivo 3 times without conceding a single break point for the entire contest. The first game of the match was extremely important with Juan Martin breaking Karlovic at 15. That gave to the Argentine the confidence to sail in the opening set (Del Potro dropped only 2 points on his serve in the opener). The final result was 6-4 6-7 (6) 6-3 7-5.

After the match, del Potro commented

“After losing the second set, I was a bit frightened. Ivo was playing really well, but I managed to regain composure.”

On Saturday, we will have the doubles. Croatia is expected to play with Cilic and Dodig (even if the official line-up is Skugor-Dodig) while Argentina may have Mayer playing with Pella.

Celebración albiceleste después del partido de Del Potro y Karlovic #FinalCopaDavis #CROARG pic.twitter.com/FmMlxjEWFm

— Copa Davis (@CopaDavis) November 25, 2016