Serbia Davis Cup Team Gets Bad News

Written by: Bob Larson Tennis on 14th November 2013

Serbia Davis Cup Team Gets Bad News

epa03868976 Serbia's Janko Tipsarevic in action against Canadian player Vasek Pospisil during the Davis Cup World Group semi-final between Serbia and Canada in Belgrade, Serbia, 15 September 2013. EPA/SRDJAN SUKI |

Serbia’s bid to win the Davis Cup for the second time in the space of four years was dramatically hit this morning with the news Janko Tipsarevic has lost his battle to be fit for the three days of the final, starting tomorrow against the Czech Republic in Belgrade.

The home nation was already rueing the absence of Viktor Troicki because of the suspension enforced by the International Tennis Federation for his infamously missed drugs test. Now Tipsarevic, whose ranking has dropped to world no.36 in recent weeks, has been ruled out of action by the chronic heel injury that has been troubling him for much of the year.

Tipsarevic, who has not played since retiring after three games of his first round match in the Valencia Open three weeks ago, and Serbian captain Bogdan Obradovic came to the decision this morning before the official draw scheduled for 1pm Belgrade time (7am New York).

“I’m still in the recovery process,” admitted Tipsarevic at the pre-draw press conference, late on Wednesday. “It’s not been a great couple of weeks for me. I tried practicing a little bit without any pain but hopefully we will sit down tonight and make a final decision whether or not I am going to play and what is going to happen.”

Now 117th-ranked Dusan Lajovic is likely to step into action and become the lowest ranked player to contest a live Davis Cup final rubber since the Slovak Republic’s Michal Mertinak faced Croatia and lost in straight sets to Mario Ancic in 2005.

“We have all been practicing for the last few days in the arena and working hard,” added Lajovic, when asked if he was ready to fill the second singles spot. “At the end of the year we’ve all had some good results and I think the captain will choose the best option for singles and doubles.”

Now the onus falls even more on Barclays ATP World Tour Finals champion Novak Djokovic to extend his winning run of 22 matches.

Meanwhile Serbia’s 37 year-old doubles specialist Nenad Zimonjic will make Davis Cup history, usurping Australia’s Mark Woodforde as the oldest player to contest a final.

Zimonjic has already played two epic Davis Cup doubles encounters in 2013, defeating the Bryans 15-13 in the fifth set in the quarterfinals against USA before losing another nail-biter 10-8 in the final set against Daniel Nestor and Vasek Pospisil in September’s semifinals.

And Zimonjic insists he’s ready to go the distance again to secure a win in the third rubber, having lost to the Czech pair in both of Serbia’s previous encounters with Czech Republic in 2010 and 2012.

“[We’ll do] whatever it takes,” he said. “It doesn’t matter how long we are going to play. If it takes five hours we’ll play five hours. It doesn’t matter really.

“It’s going to be a very difficult match. We lost twice to them in the doubles, but that’s why we’re here, to try to win it this time.”

Topics: 10sballs, Atp, ATP World Tour Finals, Daniel Nestor, Itf, Janko Tipsarevic, Novak Djokovic, Serbia, Sports, Tennis, Tennis News, Valencia Open, Vasek Pospisil, Viktor Troicki