The Netherlands back to the Europe Africa zone

Posted by TennisPhotoWorld on 14 Sep 2014

The Netherlands back to the Europe Africa zone
How do you play the decisive Davis Cup match against US-Open champion and number 9 of the world Marin Cilic? De Bakker knows the answer: “Of course he’s a great player and I’ve got nothing to lose. Still, that doesn’t mean that I only enter the court to ‘play a nice match’. No, I play this match to win. Against Cilic you only have a chance if you play aggressive. If you let him play his game, you’ll lose.” This sounds like a clear game plan, which De Bakker realized pretty good. “Thiemo played a very high level, especially in the first and fourth set. Cilic might have been surprised by this, but with his experience he got himself into the match. Thiemo never gave up and kept on fighting. He was close, and actually I had not expected this,” captain Siemerink tells us afterwards. Indeed, don’t be mistaken. Last week Cilic blew Berdych, Federer and Nishikori of the court in straight sets. “Thiemo wasn’t blown of the court, he did a great job.” In the end Cilic turned out to be the better player winning this decisive match with 6-7, 6-4, 6-2 and 7-5. Croatia is now promoted into the world group. The Netherlands unfortunately will fall back into the Europe Africa zone. The reaction of Davis Cup man Siemerink: “Loosing is never fun and we might have had to win our matches on Friday, taking a 2-0 lead. We all know that this might have been easy on paper, but the reality can be different and tough. I’ve seen great tennis today with Robin and Thiemo really putting up a fight on court. And also the other players are not to blame. When they are out there, they do everything they can to win their match.” Doubles specialist Jean-Julien Rojer confesses their lose, and especially of his double match with Robin on Saturday to be a huge blow in his face. “The double was once again very important and I did what I could. That doesn’t chance the fact that we have lost. For me it is difficult to watch my team members fight so hard on court, while I’ve earlier lost my own match. Still, I believe we have the straight to play in the world group. To realize that we need to take our chances.” Unfortunately for now the Dutch Davis Cup adventure in the world group had come to an end. How sad is it that after a week of intense training sessions and matches the team will fall apart again? “I’ve seen these guys enough now. And they have definitely had enough of me”, jokes Thiemo. “It is not the first time that we each go our separate ways. I soon hope to see these guys a little more on the tour again.”