Serbia Victorious against Croatia in Historic Match-up to Advance and Take on Czechs in Semi-finals
Janko Tipsarevic of the Serbian team was able to win his fifth set against Croatia and Antonio Veic in a historic team match-up. The Serbian team beat Croatia 4-1 to reach their first semi-final in the Davis Cup tournament.
The Serbian team went into the quarterfinals after a doubles victory with a 2-1 lead when Novak Djokovic was able to defeat Marin Cilic, earning his victory with 6-3, 6-3, 6-2. Janko Tipsarevic was then able to beat Antonio Veic 6-2, 7-6 (5) to advance Serbia into their first Davis Cup semi-final.
“This is probably the sweetest victory in my career because this is not just an individual win, but a victory for my country,” said Djokovic.
“Serbia is writing history by reaching the semi-finals,” Djokovic also added. “Beating Croatia in this kind of heated atmosphere is really something big.”
“On Friday and today Novak Djokovic was an unbridgeable obstacle, he played great tennis,” shared the Croatia coach Goran Prpic.
“We all wanted and were hoping to win this match but we have to admit that they were better,” he added.
Although the Croatian team played well, it just wasn’t good enough to beat the Serbs. The Czech Republic was also able to cement their place in the semi-finals after Jan Hajek and Lukas Dlouhy earned the team a 3-0 lead against Chile.
The pair were victorious against Jorge Aguilar and Nicolas Massu 7-6 (7-3) 6-3 3-6 6-3 as they advance into a final four showdown against Serbia. The Czechs went in leading 2-0 in the quarterfinals after Ivo Minar beat Massu and Hajek was able to take out Paul Capdeville from the Chilean team.
Although the Czech Republic previously earned a 4-1 victory against Belgium in the first round in Bree, without Radek Stepanek and Tomas Berdych, who are the team's star players, and allowed the Czechs to have a 3-0 lead during the tournament, they may not be able to dominate the Serbs.
Even though the team, who were formerly Czechoslovakia and the championship winners in 1980, as well as runner-ups in 1975 and 2009, they may not have strong enough players that will be able to take on the Serbs.
As the Czechs headed into the semi-finals with a 3-0 victory against Chile, at the end of their match the Czechs seem to have easily won as Massu of the Chilean team later confessed that he had fitness problems, while teammate Paul Capdeville’s performance was disappointing. Yet the reality is that Hajek and Minar from the Czech team played much better and were at the top of their game.
Overall, it was an impressive performance from the Czechs, particularly since they were missing their top two players. After losing Stepanek to injury, and Berdych not being able to make it to the tournament, the Czech Republic have had to rely on Hajek and Minar to replace Berdych. However Hajek and Minar might just not be enough to take on Novak Djokovic and Janko Tipsarevic come September when Serbia will host the Czech Republic in September's semi-finals.
During the semi-finals the Czechs will travel to Serbia after reaching the finals for their second straight year. Whether Czechs will be able to maintain their victorious momentum against the Serbian team remains to be seen, and based on the results of their match-up against the Croatia and Chile, predicting the team that will win is leaning in favour of the Serbians.
Generally with tournaments there generally seems to be one team that can dominate against the other and in the semi-finals, the team that is predicted to dominate in the semis is Serbia, and that's just based on their performance against Croatia. And when you combine that with the fact that the Czech team won't have their star players, then predicting the winner isn't difficult.
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