Borno Gojo broke through the Indian plans with explosive serves and energetic play as he put Croatia 1-0 ahead, by beating Prajnesh Gunneswaran 3-6, 6-4, 6-2, in the Davis Cup World Group qualifier tennis tie here on Friday.
It was a high quality fare from the 277th ranked Gojo, against the 132nd ranked Indian left-hander, who was fielded ahead of the country’s No.1 Sumit Nagal, by captain Rohit Rajpal.
Gojo wound up the show, that spanned about two hours, with two of his nine aces in the match.
Prajnesh who converted three of nine breakpoints and won 91 points in the match, one more than the 22-year-old Croat, did play strong in the entertaining contest, but missed his chances.
Backed by a patriotic crowd, the big-built Croat was athletic on court and played an inspired game to nose ahead. He converted four of 14 break points for his maiden victory in Davis Cup play.
The Indian strategy revolved around the attack on the second singles player of Croatia, as former World No. 3 Marin Cilic, who had helped triumph in 2018, was considered too much of a powerhouse for the an Indian squad that did not have a player in the top-100.
With Cilic set to play Ramkumar Ramanathan in the second singles, Croatia had seized the initiative early in the match-up, which would feature doubles and the two reverse singles on the second day.
The results: Croatia leads India 1-0 [Borna Gojo bt Prajnesh Gunneswaran 3-6, 6-4, 6-2] .
