Davis Cup: Marin Cilic thrashes Kazakhstan's Mikhail Kukushkin to take Croatia into semi-finals

Varazdin: Croatia set up a Davis Cup semi-final meeting with the United States after world number three Marin Cilic thrashed Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Kukushkin in Varazdin on Sunday. [caption id=“attachment_4320805” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Marin Cilic. AP[/caption] Cilic’s 6-1, 6-1, 6-1 victory gave 2005 champions Croatia an unassailable 3-1 lead in the quarter-final tie. Croatia will host the US in September. “From the beginning till the end I played on a rather high level … constant pressure, superior, aggressive,” former US Open champion Cilic said. “I had maybe a few matches in the Davis Cup that were ‘one way’ … but not really against a player of this level since Kukushkin is within (the) world top 100.” Ahead of the quarter-final, the 29-year-old said that he would stop playing in the Davis Cup if Croatia win the trophy this season. Cilic had already beaten Dmitry Popko on Friday 6-2, 6-1, 6-2. On Saturday, Ivan Dodig and Nikola Mektic saw off the Kazakh pair of Timur Khabibulin and Aleksandr Nedovyesov, after Kukushkin had stunned world number 28 Borna Coric in Friday’s second singles match.