Victory against Finland sees Belgium qualify for Davis Cup Final Round
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Loading... - Heather Craven
- 07 Mar 2022
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To qualify final round the Belgians had to get past Finland. David Goffin had a difficult start on Friday evening against Otto Vitranen. However, the Belgian but did win his opening match in 3 sets.
A few hours later, Finland’s Emil Ruusuvuori (ATP-71) leveled the score after a well-deserved 6-3, 7-5 win against Zizou Bergs. We would have to wait until Saturday to find out whether Finland or Belgium would qualify for the final round.
On Saturday the opening match of the day also went wrong for Belgium. David Goffin (photo below), who was standing in for Joran Vliegen after he tested positive for coronavirus, and Sander Gillé came back from a set down in the doubles. The third set of their match against Harri Heliovaara and Emil Ruusuvuori would be decisive.
The Belgians were soon 3-0 up, but the Finns were going to give up easy in front of between 4,000 to 5,000 enthusiastic home fans. They came back to 4-4 and cleared 2 Belgian match points on their next serve game.
The match went to a tiebreak. The Belgians were 3-1 behind but Goffin and Gillé pulled back to make it 4-5. However, a double foul by Goffin on their first match point proved to be Belgium’s undoing. Our players lost the doubles match 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (7/5) after 2 hours and 8 minutes of play.
Goffin and Bergs get the job done in singles
Belgium had their backs against the wall but knew what they had to do. Saturday’s two single game s had to be won at all costs. David Goffin would have to lead by example and this time he faced the toughest opponent of the two Finns in the shape of Ruusuvuori.
Goffin raised his game considerably and was very dominant. He won easily in two sets 4-6, 2-6. It was now up to 22-year-old Zizou Bergs to get the job done. Read More…
