This Article is From Sep 19, 2009

Czechs reach Davis Cup final by beating Croatia

Porec, Croatia: The Czech Republic has reached its first Davis Cup final in 29 years after securing an insurmountable 3-0 lead over Croatia by winning the doubles.

Radek Stepanek and Tomas Berdych defeated Marin Cilic and Lovro Zovko 6-1, 6-3, 6-4 on Saturday to decide the best-of-five series. The Czech Republic will take on either Spain or Israel in the final in December.

The Czechs opted to stay with the players who won the singles on Friday, and Croatia surprisingly picked its top player Cilic for the match in an attempt to stay in the series.

It is the Czechs' first final since their only Davis Cup triumph in 1980, when Ivan Lendl was on the team.

This is only the second loss for 2005 champion Croatia in 13 home matches in the Davis Cup.

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