Serbs score historic win against Croatia
History was created in the 1700 year old historical city of Split, the largest coastal city of Croatia, as the Davis Cup Quarter Final tie played between Serbia and Croatia at the Spaladium Arena was won by the Serbs.
For Serbs this is the first time that they will be playing the Davis Cup Semi Finals. The Serbian team played under the Yugoslav flag till 2003 and then as Serbia and Montenegro from 2004 to 2006. This was their first major win during the Davis Cup.
This was the first time that the two sides were meeting each other in the Davis Cup and Novak Djokovic made sure that it would be a memorable date. The first rubber between Ivan Ljubicic and the 2nd ranked Novak Djokovic was the starting point of this victory.
The competition was tough, as the first set came to a 6-6 tie when Djokovic couldn’t return Ljubicic’s ace. In the tiebreak though, Djokovic proved his strength and restricted Ljubicic to 3 points and took the set 7-6(3). In the second set Ljubicic lost some crucial points on out of court shots. Ljubicic couldn’t regain his confidence after that and lost 6-4. Djokovic at this time began taking full advantage of this and played aggressively to take his team to a straight set win of 6-1 in the third set.
In the second rubber, the 21 year old 13th ranked Croat, Martin Cilic, outrun his Serb opponent Viktor Troicki. The Croatian crowd was loud and kept the stadium ringing with their chants. After a struggle Cilic took the first set 6-4. The second set saw Troicki struggling with his blocks and serves. This played to Cilic’s advantage as he went on to win the second set 7-5. He didn’t loosen his game and played consistently as he scored a comfortable victory in the third set by 6-2.
The Croats were confident of their game but overcoming the Serbians wasn’t a piece of cake. The doubles match of third rubber saw both the teams putting up an equal fight but eventually the Serbs took the match.
After the first set win by the Serbs of 6-3 the Croats came on pretty tough in the second set, scoring some points on serves and some on the opponents’ with a few great net blocks. But they failed to win the second set either and submitted to the Serbs with a large difference of 6-2. It was difficult to stage a comeback for the Croats in the third set and they lost that by 6-4 as well.
The Croatian team was confident that they would at least take their game to the 5th rubber, but Djokovic crushed their hopes. Djokovic, the first Serbian to clinch the Australian Open in 2008 lived up to his expectations and defeated his opponent Cilic, clinching a straight sets victory.
The Spaladium arena was empty as fans were hoping the tie would be decided in the 5th rubber. Djokovic remained cool and calm as he uprooted Cilic. Playing some fine ground shots and chops, he put the Croat in a state of unrest from the very first set. This worked in his advantage and he successfully won the first set by 6-3.
In the second set Cilic tried hard but could only win three games, while the Serbian young gun was unstoppable at six. The third set saw Cilic desperate for game wins which did cost him some crucial points. Djokovic with his head racket, was smashing the Croat hard.
When Djokovic was near his historic victory the adrenalin started to kick in for the Serb and he already seem excited. With his strong back hand and consistent strokes he finally scored a 6-2 victory against the Croatian Team to take his team to the semi finals.
The Serbians took the final rubber between Antonio Veic and Janko Tipsarevic. The Serbians will be playing Czech Republic to a home ground advantage in the September semi finals. On the other hand the Czech team reached the semi final after beating Chile 4-1.
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