Borna Coric fired Croatia through to the Davis Cup Finals for a fourth time after ending Austria's hopes of a final day fightback in their 2023 Qualifier.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Coric saw off Dominic Thiem 7-6(3) 6-2 in an hour and 45 minutes to prevent Jurgen Melzer's visiting side from gaining any further momentum after Austrian doubles pair Lucas Miedler & Alexander Erler had recorded a surprise triumph over the home side in the doubles.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Austria's doubles pair upset Nikola Mektic and Ivan Dodig 6-3 7-6 (11) in one hour and 50 minutes to deny a Croatian clean sweep after the two Bornas - Borna Coric and Borna Gojo - had won their singles on the opening day.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
That left Thiem with an opportunity to take the contest to a deciding fifth, but the 2020 US Open champion, still on the comeback trail from a wrist injury, struggled for consistency against Coric.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
"I enjoyed the fight, it was great," Coric was quoted by ATP Tour website. "It was great to play in front of the home crowd. I was very happy with the way I was playing on the important points. I was very aggressive so I'm super happy with the win."<\/p>\r\n\r\n
In the other qualifiers, Korea Republic recovered from 0-2 down for the first time to claim a remarkable 3-2 victory over Belgium, while Finland sealed their first-ever berth in the Finals Group Stage with a 3-1 win over Argentina.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Elsewhere, Netherlands cruised past Slovakia 4-0, and there were 3-1 victories for Chile and Czech Republic over Kazakhstan and Portugal respectively.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
The six victorious teams follow Great Britain, Serbia, Switzerland, Sweden, USA and France in progressing from this weekend's Qualifiers.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
The 12 winning nations in the Qualifiers joined 2022 champions Canada, 2022 runners-up Australia and wild cards Italy and Spain at the 2023 Finals.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
The Group Stage will be played across four venues from September 12 to17, with the eight best-performing teams advancing to the Final 8 in Malaga, Spain from November 21 to 26.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
The 12 winning nations in the Qualifiers joined 2022 champions Canada, 2022 runners-up Australia and wild cards Italy and Spain at the 2023 Finals.<\/p>\r\n\r\n