Viktor Troicki was the hero for Serbia as he thrashed France’s Michael Llodra in the decisive rubber to give the home side their first Davis Cup victory.
Troicki came in for the higher-ranked Janko Tipsarevic with the tie level at 2-2 and played superbly to defeat Llodra 6-2 6-2 6-3 in Belgrade. World number three Novak Djokovic had earlier brought Serbia level with a 6-2 6-2 6-4 win over Gael Monfils. Serbia are the 13th nation to win the Davis Cup since its inception in 1900.
“My players showed that they are mentally the strongest team in the world,” said Serbia captain Bogdan Obradovic. “We showed we are number one.” And France captain Guy Forget admitted: “We had expected two difficult matches today, but what we didn’t expect was that Viktor would be so good.”
Serbia only made their Davis Cup debut in 1995 and both Djokovic and Obradovic had said before the final that victory would be the greatest achievement in the nation’s short sporting history. Serbia went into the final day trailing 2-1 after Llodra and Arnaud Clement had fought back from two sets down to claim a stunning win over Troicki and Nenad Zimonjic in Saturday’s doubles rubber. Djokovic played superbly in front of a fervent crowd of over 16,000 at the Belgrade Arena as he swept past Monfils in Sunday’s opening singles to level the tie. He stormed through the first two sets and looked to be cruising to his sixth straight win over the Frenchman, but had to survive a pulsating third set before clinching victory.
The world number three twice fell a break behind, smashing his racquet in absolute fury on the second occasion, but hit back immediately both times before closing out the match. “Under the circumstances, with huge pressure, I played an amazing match,” said Djokovic. “Everything was working.”
And he then delivered a message to his home crowd in Serbian, before explaining: “My message was for them to stay. I know it’s difficult in a best-of-five match, it can last hours and hours, but the next match is the most important in maybe all our careers.”
Serbia only made their Davis Cup debut in 1995 and both Djokovic and Obradovic had said before the final that victory would be the greatest achievement in the nation’s short sporting history. Serbia went into the final day trailing 2-1 after Llodra and Arnaud Clement had fought back from two sets down to claim a stunning win over Troicki and Nenad Zimonjic in Saturday’s doubles rubber. Djokovic played superbly in front of a fervent crowd of over 16,000 at the Belgrade Arena as he swept past Monfils in Sunday’s opening singles to level the tie.
He stormed through the first two sets and looked to be cruising to his sixth straight win over the Frenchman, but had to survive a pulsating third set before clinching victory. The world number three twice fell a break behind, smashing his racquet in absolute fury on the second occasion, but hit back immediately both times before closing out the match.
“Under the circumstances, with huge pressure, I played an amazing match,” said Djokovic. “Everything was working.” And he then delivered a message to his home crowd in Serbian, before explaining: “My message was for them to stay. I know it’s difficult in a best-of-five match, it can last hours and hours, but the next match is the most important in maybe all our careers- BBC
