Filed under: Davis Cup
On Saturday, little went right for Viktor Troicki in front of his home crowd at the Belgrade Arena. On Sunday, the 24-year-old Serbian played the match of his life, in the biggest match of his career, to claim Serbia's first ever Davis Cup title.
Troicki dominated Michael Llodra of France 6-2, 6-2, 6-3 to win the fifth and decisive rubber match (3-2) in the championship tie. Troicki and his teammates placed Serbia in the annals of Davis Cup history in an exciting, drama-filled weekend. They are the 13th nation to claim the Davis Cup.
"This is the most intense pressure ever in my life," Troicki said in an on-court interview shown on the Tennis Channel. "I don't have any words. Unbelievable."
Serbia becomes only the sixth nation in the history of the tournament to win the Davis Cup in their maiden finals appearance - the last two being Sweden in 1975 behind Bjorn Borg and Croatia in 2005.
Serbia also defied the odds by overcoming a 2-1 deficit during singles play. Only a handful of countries have achieved that monumental feat; the last being Russia in 2002 when they defeated France.
But it was destiny for a Serbian sweep at home.
In the battle of the nations' No. 1 players on Sunday, Novak Djokovic forced the fifth and decisive live rubber in the tie by handily defeating Gael Monfils of France 6-2, 6-2, 6-4 in the first match. Djokovic, who has served well all tournament, cruised by Monfils to improve his head-to-head record against to 6-0 against the Frenchman. With the win, Djokovic also improved to 7-0 for Serbia in live Davis Cup rubbers for the year.
After the Monfils-Djokovic match, it was decision time for each captain.
Both had to choose what player to use in the decisive and final match. Guy Forget of France chose Michael Llodra - whom Forget bypassed in favor of Gilles Simon in singles during Friday's loss. Bogdan Obradovic of Serbia made the courageous decision to go with Viktor Troicki over Janko Tipsarevic.
When asked about the decision during an on-court interview shown on the Tennis Channel, Obradovic said: "This was really tough. We managed somehow, second time in a row, to win two matchups on Sunday."
The decision to pick Troicki was a gutsy one, because he had not played well in the waning moments of the doubles loss on Saturday against Llodra, as Llorda and Arnaud Clement rallied back from two sets down to defeat Troicki and Nenad Zimonjic in a five-set thriller.
But Obradovic kept faith in Troicki, and the decision paid off -- all the way to a Davis Cup title.
Troicki's return game off Llodra's service was spectacular on Sunday. Llodra committed numerous unforced errors and looked completely out of sorts. Troicki's superb passing shots took away the Frenchman's strength that is the serve-and-volley play.
Troicki started the match out strong by breaking Llodra twice in the first set to claim the opener. This set the tone as Troicki commanded pace during the contest.
After Troicki was broken to start the second set and fell into a 0-2 hole, he outclassed the Frenchman behind the home crowd the rest of the way.
Troicki rallied to win eight straight games, claimed the second set 6-2, and that boiled over to a 2-0 lead in the third set.
Up 6-2, 6-2, 3-1, Llodra double faulted - hesitant of Troicki's return - to put the Serbian team up 4-1 in the third set with French dreams all but gone.
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Source: http://tennis.fanhouse.com/2010/12/05/davis-cup-serbia-rallies-to-defeat-france-3-2-behind-djokovic/
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