Latest Men’s Tennis Update

Written by: Staff on 16th November 2013

Serbia vs Czech Republic tennis doubles Davis cup final

Latest Men's Tennis Update

epa03953140 Radek Stepanek (L) and Tomas Berdych (R) of Czech Republic return a ball to Ilija Bozoljac and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia during their Davis Cup final tennis doubles match between Serbia and Czech Republic in Belgrade, Serbia, 16 November 2013. EPA/KOCA SULEJMANOVIC |

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* Czechs lead Davis Cup final 2-1

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Davis Cup

When the poll appeared on the Davis Cup site, “Who do you think will win the doubles match? Ilija Bozoljac/Nenad Zimonjic [or] Jan Hajek/Lukas Rosol,” we were already betting on “None of the Above.” After all, the only way you can win is if you play — and there was a good chance that neither of those teams would play.

It became official about an hour before the match started: Berdych/Stepanek replaced Hajek/Rosol. Most people were expecting the Serbs to play Djokovic/Zimonjic, but that didn’t happen; the Serbs went with their listed team of Bozoljac/Zimonjic.

The first noteworthy thing about the match is that Nenad Zimonjic, at 37, is now the oldest player ever to participate in a Davis Cup final match. (Not the oldest to participate in a Davis Cup tie, of course — indeed, the Nestor of tennis, now-41-year-old Daniel Nestor, played in the semifinal this year.) Zimonjic has been playing Davis Cup for half his life — his first appearance was eighteen years ago, when he was still playing for Yugoslavia. Unfortunately for Serbia, his results and ranking have declined dramatically in the last two or three years. He served first for Serbia, and in a very small good omen, he won the first point. It didn’t prove a very accurate omen, however, for Berdych and Stepanek broke in that first game. They added another break later in the set, and another in the Serbs’ first service game in the second. The Serbs didn’t even have a break point until the sixth game of the third set. No conversion, though; they remained on serve. The Serbs went up 3-1 in the tiebreak — and then lost six of the last seven points. The Czechs took the match 6-2 6-4 7-6.

Berdych/Stepanek are now 14-1 as a team in Davis Cup doubles. Doubles great Mahesh Bhupathi tweeted that “The third set was one of the best sets of doubles I have seen in a long long time, returning exhibition from the Czechs….” Fill-in team captain Vladimir Safarik declared, “I am crying. These guys are unbelievable. Their record is amazing. We are 2-1 up and it’s just one step tomorrow.”

As Safarik implied, the doubles was pretty close to must-win for Serbia — far more so than the Czechs. The Czechs, had they lost, would still have had a chance at winning in the singles, since Berdych would have at least a shot against Novak Djokovic and Stepanek would be favored against Dusan Lajovic. But with Serbia down 1-2, they need both Djokovic and Lajovic to win. And, to make things worse, the doubles probably didn’t even tire Stepanek out very much.

Just to demonstrate how big a hill Serbia has to climb, if we assume that Berdych has a 15% chance of beating Djokovic (about right based on results in recent years), and Lajovic has a 20% chance of beating Stepanek, the Czechs now have an 83% chance of winning the Cup and the Serbs only a 17% chance. And even that may be optimistic — what are the chances of Lajovic, who has never won a live Davis Cup match, beating Stepanek in the fifth match of the final?

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