Sergi Bruguera maintained confidence in Roberto Bautista for the tie against Croatia. The Spanish team is not left over. Unlike years ago, when it was difficult to leave out some players in the singles, now, beyond the Castellon, ninth in the world, there is a considerable distance to Pablo Carreño, 27, and Feliciano López, 62. Conditioned by injuries, Carreño, 28, has not progressed as expected of him and has not revealed himself as a good Davis Cup player. He has participated in six qualifiers, with a balance of two wins and three losses in singles. Bautista took a break and beat Nikola Mektic 6-1 and 6-3, in 57 minutes, to place Spain with an advantage and closer to the quarterfinals of the Davis Cup Finals.

Disabled by the absence of Marin Cilic, who was erased by recurring knee problems, Croatia, current champion, has appeared in Madrid involved in problems. Franko Skugor is the new captain, replacing Zeljko Krajan, who left the team due to problems with the players. After the defeat against Russia, he opted for Mektic as number two instead of the young Borna Gojo, elected on the first day. Mektic has 15 doubles titles, but doesn't even have ATP rankings in singles.

Since he stepped on the court, it was seen that any excuse would be good to go to the net, lacking solid foundations from the bottom. It reached him to briefly hold his serve, but Baptist soon took advantage. If something needed the Spanish number two after his defeat on Tuesday against Rublev it was a game as placid as he enjoyed. Without plan B, forced to die in the only place where he develops with some expertise, Mektic was a suicide, machine-gunned again and again by the passings of his adversary. His last individual match dated from August 2017, when he lost to Thomas Fabiano in the first round of the previous Cincinnati Masters 1000. There was hardly any game or competitive tension. Mektic handed his head on a silver platter.

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