Serbia beat India to progress to Davis Cup quarterfinals
Top seeds and defending champions Serbia defeated lowly India 4-1 to book a place in the Davis Cup 2011 quarterfinals. Despite looking close initially, the tie turned out to be one sided, as the Serbian players won both the doubles match and the two reverse
singles matches to close play in style. Like last year, Victor Troicki turned out to be the Serbian hero, winning both matches in style.
The rubber started off on Friday, with Serbia gaining the upper hand at first. Victor Troicki, the Serbian first pick, faced off against Rohan Bopanna, the doubles specialist. The match was thrilling throughout, as inspired by patriotism, both players gave
their best. Troicki won the first two sets easily, going up 6-3, 6-3 and looking to take the match in straight sets. Bopanna fought back brilliantly though and tied the score at two all, 6-3, 6-3, 5-7, 3-6. In the last set, Troicki's greater stamina won out,
handing him the match 6-3, 6-3, 5-7, 3-6, 6-3.
In the second match of the contest, Indian top seed Somdev Devvarman faced off against World number 45 and Serbia's second pick, Janko Tipsarevic. This was again a thrilling encounter, but did not go on for as long as the first match. Devvarman secured late
breaks in the first two sets to take them 7-5, 7-5. The last set saw no such luck, as Tipsarevic fought hard. The decider went into tie-break, which the South Asian took to win the match 7-5, 7-5 and 7-6.
With the score level at 1-1, play progressed into Saturday. The only match of the day was the doubles tie. India picked Devvarman to join Bopanna, while Serbia put forward the team of doubles number four Nenad Zimonjic and Ilija Bozoljac. Things looked bad
for the top seeds early on, as they lost the first set quite easily after conceding a break. Zimonjic's experience however allowed them to hit back hard, and for the next two sets they played a ruthless brand of tennis. The reward was two sets to their name.
The fourth set stayed close throughout, and level on games, the two teams went into a tie break. The tiebreak itself turned out to be long and gruelling and with neither team giving an inch, stood at 10-10. The Serbs then finally broke through, and took the
last set 7-6.
The reverse singles started with Serbia leading 2-1. A victory would hand them the rubber, but a loss would put them level again, with everything on the deciding match. They need not have worried though, since their hero, Victor Troicki, was in town. His
opponent in this match was Devvarman, the player who had defeated his compatriot Tipsarevic in his first match.
Revenge was exacted soon enough though, as the Serb put his top 20 talent to good use. The first two sets were closed out 6-3, 6-2, with breaks coming easily in both. The Indian regained some semblance of form in the third set though, and used it to extend
the contest to 12 games. The effort was futile however, since Troicki still managed to secure a break in the end. It was game, set, match and rubber to the Serbs. They were through to the quarters.
The last match of the day was a mere formality and was treated as such by Janko Tipsarevic. Looking to save face after his defeat earlier on, he walloped world number 285 Karan Rastogi 6-0, 6-1 and added some sweet assurance to Serbian victory.
In the next round, Serbia face Sweden, who got through with a dominant win over Russia.
Tags: