After the ATP Finals there is the men’s tennis showdown of the season – the Final 8 in the Davis Cup. Directly from Turin to Malaga it was more or less the case for the two stars in both competitions: Novak Djokovic and Jannik Sinner are the leading figures of their teams from Serbia and Italy. The scheduling of their quarter-finals gives them at least one day more time, as Italy against the Netherlands and Serbia against Great Britain are not scheduled until Thursday.
Defending champion Canada, led by Felix Auger-Aliassime (ATP 29th), opens the quarter-final series against Finland on Tuesday, and on Wednesday the Czech Republic meets Australia with Alex de Minaur (12th).
Djokovic arrives with a triumph at the ATP Finals under his belt. For the Serb, the Davis Cup is very important, even if he has only won it once. “This is a very important week for us as a team, for Serbia as a sporting nation,” said the 36-year-old after his show of force against Sinner. The now 24-time Grand Slam champion remembers the year 2010 very clearly. Back then he won with Serbia. “That was one of my most heartfelt and most beautiful memories on a tennis court – being able to share that with my friends and colleagues from the national team,” reflected the “Djoker”. In 2013, Serbia reached the final again with Djokovic, but the Czech Republic won 3-2 in Belgrade.
Since 2011, the world number one has won 20 Davis Cup singles in a row, but in doubles he has a poor record by his standards: Djokovic has only won four of his eleven doubles appearances. But the latter is particularly important in the Davis Cup with two singles and a double. “We don’t have a lot of doubles experience as a team, so we’ll work on that. Hopefully we can fight for the trophy.”
The first hurdle is Great Britain on Thursday (4 p.m.) with Cameron Norrie (ATP 18th), Jack Draper (61st) and the strong doubles Neal Skupski/Joe Salisbury. The latter also took part in the ATP Finals with other partners. Veteran Andy Murray withdrew due to a shoulder injury. In the singles, in addition to Djokovic, the Serbs also have Laslo Djere (33rd), Dusan Lajovic (46th) and Miomir Kecmanovic (55th) available.
Even before that, the favored Italians with Sinner could have prevailed against the Netherlands (10:00). Then there could be a big duel between Djokovic and Sinner in the semifinals on Saturday (12 p.m.). It would be revenge: The South Tyrolean won the group match against Djokovic in Turin last week by a tiny margin after 3:09 hours with 7:6 in the third set. However, Djokovic won the final on Sunday evening with 6:3,6:3.
From: apa
2023-11-20 09:30:00
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