Croatia dumped out much-fancied Italy in the Davis Cup quarter-finals on Monday as Olympic men’s doubles champions Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic brushed aside Jannik Sinner and Fabio Fognini in a deciding match.
The Italians were one of the favourites for the title but paid for Lorenzo Sonego’s shock defeat by world number 279 Borna Gojo in the first singles rubber in Turin.
Singles world number 10 Sinner forced a deciding doubles with a dramatic victory over Marin Cilic, but he could not complete the job against the top two ranked doubles players as Mektic and Pavic won 6-3, 6-4 to silence the home crowd.
Croatia will next face either Novak Djokovic’s Serbia or Kazakhstan in the semi-finals in Madrid.
“Honestly, it feels incredible. I don’t think anyone expected us to get this far and it feels amazing to be going to Madrid,” said Mektic.