The US will be targeting the heavy singles artillery on Novak Djokovic, hoping to catch the Serb on a downward drift in the weekend Davis Cup quarter-final in far-West Idaho on fast indoor hardcourt.
The world No. 1 has had – by his lofty standards – a so-so run through the US over the past month, with an Indian Wells semi-final and fourth-round upset loss in Miami at that pair of Masters 1000 stops. Now he’s expected to lead his nation against the US with all eyes on his performance.
US captain Jim Courier is hoping that his low-key singles pair of Sam Querrey and John Isner can somehow do damage to the top man on the court at the weekend. “They’re one of the best squads out there clearly,” he said of the 2010 champion Serbs. “When you have the No.1 player in the world, that’s a nice place to start.
“But they’re thick, even without (injured Janko) Tipsarevic, who has ruled himself out from what I’ve gathered. When you have (Victor) Troicki, a former top 20 player, you have (Nenad) Zimonjic playing doubles, you have five difficult matches in front of you.
“That’s what we expect to see. Not too dissimilar from when we played in Switzerland going up against (Roger) Federer and (Stan) Wawrinka, having five tough matches there. We know it can be done. We know it’s going to be difficult with Novak. He’s setting the standard right now.”
Topics: American tennis news, Davis Cup tennis news, Novak Djokovic, Serbian tennis news, Sports, Tennis News