The story almost stopped at the Tirol foot of Serbia’s Novak Djokovic on Sunday evening. While not playing, the Serbian national team experienced a very tense day, with growing anxiety, until the launch and success of the Russian duo, Andrei Rublev – Aslan Karatsev, against the Spanish duo, Feliciano Lopez – Marcel Granollers (4-6, 6-2, 6-4) Too late who confirmed, by rebounding, “Djoko” and his squad qualified as second best (just like Sweden) and were knocked out in the final round in host country Madrid, Spain.
For Novak Djokovic, the ax came close and an early exit – due to a potential win for Spain – was a huge disappointment. Because the Serbian made this end-of-season encounter a huge event, a point of honor, and a sacred bond with his Serbian teammates. So early on, the goal was clear, on display, and declared for weeks: to bring home a second bowl of salad, after the one conquered in 2010, in Belgrade against France, the only one Davis has so far won by World No. 1.
As always when under the flag, Knoll, who has racked up an astonishing record of 24 wins in the 25 singles contested in the event, has been doing the job in Innsbruck all week. Two singles played, 11 mini-games waived, not a break point for defense! But everything could have collapsed after his defeat in the doubles, associated with Nikola Cacic, on Saturday night against Germany (1-2). A setback that almost destroyed everything, when the same Germans took first place in Group F on Sunday evening by dominating Austria (2-1), which put Serbia back in the jumping bench. Before the Russians came at night to save the buttocks of Djokovic and his friends.
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