Davis Cup 2010: Serbia cruises into the final
Serbia’s Janko Tipsarevic defeated Radek Stepanek on Sunday to take his country into its very first final of the Davis Cup with a 3-2 win over the Czech Republic.
Janko’s 6-0, 7-6 (6), 6-4 victory came after world number two Novak Djokovic brought Serbia back into the clash by brushing aside Tomas Berdych in a total of four sets to level the best of five series at 2-2.
Serbia will now host France in December for the final encounter of the Davis Cup. France qualified after defeating Argentina 5-0 in the other semi-final battle.
Niki Pilic, who assisted Croatia and Germany to Davis Cup wins and who now advises Serbia, commented that he did not sign up to triumph in the opening round.
“I have full confidence in these players and they are highly motivated to fight for their nation. Grabbing a total of three points in the final will be like climbing Mt. Everest however it was not an easy task for sure. Triumphing in both clashes today under
extreme pressure is simply great,” said Pilic.
After Janko had converted his third match point, the Serbian contenders fell into each other’s arms, then fell down and created a circle around their national flag.
Janko proved to be one of the key players for Serbia, triumphing in both of his singles matches.
Novak, when asked about Janko’s game on Sunday, said that he was the hero of the match.
Janko won 9 out of his first 10 games. However, he almost lost the following set after Radek clawed his way back into the game. The Serbian had to prevent one set point in the tiebreaker before securing a lead of two sets. He managed a lead of 4-0 in the
third and cruised home despite missing a serve on one occasion.
Stepanek after the match said, “I do not think that he made any mistake in the opening set however I should have won the next set as it was really close in the end. Moreover, he was not as sharp and good, had I won it, it would have been a different story
all together. However, I tried extremely hard throughout the match and was not ready to give up till the end. But in the end, I lost versus a player who actually played better than me on the court beyond any doubt.”
Tipsarevic on the other hand said that he might have been in a difficult situation if he had to stay any further on the court. “If it went to fourth or more, I am not sure what would have happened in the end as I was getting exhausted,” he added.
Novak, who was runners up at the United States Open, had a slow start to the match. However, he was fully supported by a huge crowd in the Belgrade Arena that even made use of vuvuzelas to boost their side.
He missed his serve during the seventh game to lose the opening set.
The world number two missed the first singles on Friday as he was not feeling fit after coming back from Flushing Meadows on Wednesday where he was defeated by Rafael Nadal in the title battle.
He came back to contest in the doubles clash on Saturday in a losing effort that left his team trailing 2-1 and Novak had to take down Berdych in order to keep his team in the competition.
Novak came into the clash with a 2-1 career edge over Tomas. And despite the fact that the ace from Czech Republic had triumphed in their semi-final battle at Wimbledon, Djokovic won the match in a total of four sets on Sunday.
Tags: