Hace of the wings, Rafael Nadal was the hero of the final phase of the Davis Cup held in the Caja Mgica, awarding eight points to Spain.
Novak Djokovic now adds four for Serbia. The two singles of the Innsbruck ’round robin’, with Dennis Novak and Jan Lennard Struff, were joined by the triumphs today against Alexander Bublik and later in the doubles alongside Nikola Cacic. His victims have been Andrey Golubev and Aleksandr Nedovyesov by 6-2, 2-6 and 6-3.
The world number one wants to be remembered as the best player of all time and winning the second Silver Salad Bowl is a good way. to gain even more numerical distance with respect to the other two members of the ‘Big Three’, Nadal and Roger Federer.
Djokovic, who gave the first Davis for Serbia 11 years ago, has not lost hunger despite the passage of time. At 34, he continues to play to win all possible ‘Grand Slam’ crowns and raise the Serbian flag to the top wherever he goes.
He felt that he failed his people in the last Tokyo Games, losing in the semifinals with Alexander Zverev and later in the fight for bronze with Pablo Carreo., and that is why it has been re-enlisted to the World Championship by national teams.
It should be remembered that ‘Nole’ also guided his team to the crown in the first edition of the ATP Cup in 2020. Golubev and Nedovyesov are good doubles players, the first is 28th in the ranking and the second is 72nd, and they remain invited in this edition.
But in front of them they had not had the best player on the planet, who reads the game like no one else. Djokovic makes any of his companions good. It was Cacic’s turn, with whom he had yielded to the Germans Kevin Krawietz and Tim Puetz.
After giving up the first set, the Kazakhs then reacted with a 4-1 start. Any detail equals doubles matches. Golubev and Nedovyesov signed the tables in the scoring, keeping Cacic’s serve twice.
Novak was not willing to miss that train and with several accurate points they broke in the fifth game of the tiebreaker.
The champion of 20 majors has qualified his country for the sixth time for the penultimate round of the Davis Cup. And ahead they will have Croatia on Friday, in the duel of the Balkans. The squad led by Marin Cilic, and which has the best C on the circuit, Mate Pavic and Nikola Mektic, have been resting since Monday when they gave the surprise in Turn against the host Italia.
Nole feels very comfortable within the team because He is surrounded by his best friends, say the coach Viktor Troicki, the second, Dusan Vemic, and Filip Krajinovic.
The friendship with the latter led him to take him to train in the Adelaide bubble before the dispute of the last Australian Open. And it works well in the 820 meters high of the capital of Spain. Here I have already won three editions of the Mutua Madrid Open.
Cacic is 36th in the world in doubles and seemed ‘top10’ next to his decorated mid-court accompanist. The Madrid Arena stands, which were close to full, applauded the efforts of the Serbs, especially a Djokovic who has extended his season to the maximum by wearing the shield.
From guest to semifinalist
Serbia, one of the two invited by the Davis Cup committee to this edition, the other was France, removes the bad taste in the mouth that was eliminated two years ago in the quarters with Russia. They gave precisely in the doubles with Troicki as the great culprit.
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