 Photographer: Srdjan Stevanovic
Date: 08 Feb 2008 |  Photographer: Srdjan Stevanovic
Date: 08 Feb 2008 |  Photographer: Srdjan Stevanovic
Date: 08 Feb 2008 |  Photographer: Srdjan Stevanovic
Date: 08 Feb 2008 |  Photographer: Srdjan Stevanovic
Date: 08 Feb 2008 |  Photographer: Srdjan Stevanovic
Date: 08 Feb 2008 |
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| 08 Feb 2008 - Small Sports Arena "Luzhniki", Moscow - Chris Bowers - RUS v SRB | |
| All not yet lost for fighting Serbia |
One of the most finely balanced ties of the Davis Cup by BNP Paribas weekend ended its opening day with Russia leading Serbia 2-0, yet that is hardly a shock given the dramatic events which unfolded in the hour before play began.
First Novak Djokovic didn’t show up for practice, creating rumours that he might not play. He arrived at the Luzhniki arena at just before noon, wearing a woolly winter hat and looking pale. The tie’s neutral doctor confirmed he was still suffering from flu-like symptoms and it was announced that Nenad Zimonjic, Serbia’s doubles specialist with a singles ranking of 689, would play the opening match against the world No 8 Mikhail Youzhny. That confirmed other rumours that Janko Tipsarevic was unfit, and it later emerged that Zimonjic himself was also struggling with his health.
It should have been such a triumphant day for Serbia – instead it turned into a nightmare, and yet the nation emerged with great credit from two great performances.
Setbacks for Serbia
A team built around a Grand Slam champion, a second player ranked in the top 50, and a top tenner in doubles wilted to the point where it had just one fit player. Djokovic hadn’t practised for three days because of his symptoms, Tipsarevic had injured his ankle in practice and may be out for several weeks, and the doubles specialist Nenad Zimonjic was up on Thursday night with a temperature. It left the 21-year-old Viktor Troicki - who’s at a career-high ranking of 114 but had never played a Davis Cup rubber - as Serbia’s only fit player.
In the end, the Serb staff decided Zimonjic was the least incapacitated of the three ailing men and he was thrown in against Youzhny. For the first hour Zimonjic played superbly, cashing in on Youzhny’s difficulty in having to readjust from the powerful groundstrokes he had expected from Djokovic to the largely floated groundstrokes of Zimonjic. Credit also goes to the Serb, who seemed to know exactly when to come to the net and when to unleash his lethal flat backhand.
After 27 minutes Zimonjic was a set up, and he had two break points in the opening game of the second set. The seven points that followed – all for Youzhny – began to turn the tide. Youzhny opened up a 3-0 lead, and when he held serve for 5-2 having been 0-40 down, Zimonjic began to look like he knew the game was up. Three more breaks allowed Youzhny to run out a 26 63 62 64 winner.
Troicki takes Davydenko to five sets
Troicki may have been Serbia’s only fit player, but he was still up against the world No. 4 Nikolay Davydenko, who had something of a point to prove after losing his last two home Davis Cup singles rubbers to lower-ranked opposition. The match turned into a slugfest from the baseline, with Troicki badly afflicted by nerves in the first set. Some poor body language on controversial calls suggested the Serbs had rather given up hope.
But a break early in the second set brought Troicki into the match. When he broke early in the third, he seemed to have got under Davydenko’s skin, but the Russian broke straight back, and another break in the sixth game helped him to a 2-1 lead. Far from lying down, Troicki played his best tennis in the fourth set, and when he broke in the opening game of the fifth on a scintillating down-the-line backhand pass, a shock victory was on the cards.
Davydenko later admitted that the spectre of his defeats in his last two home Davis Cup by BNP Paribas ties to Paul-Henri Mathieu and Philipp Kohlschreiber was beginning to haunt him.
“At the start of the fifth set I started to wonder whether I could ever win a match in Davis Cup,” he said, “I was almost starting to be crazy, but I told myself to concentrate well and try and win my match.”
And concentrate he did, winning four games on the run to turn the deficit into a winning lead. With the letters spelling his country starting to hang by a thread from the back of Troicki’s shirt, the Serb hung in by saving two match points, but a double fault gifted Davydenko a third, and an overhit Troicki forehand ended the three-hour contest 61 16 63 61 62 in Russia’s favour.
Djokovic practised for nearly an hour after play on Friday, suggesting that he is seriously considering playing in Saturday’s doubles. If Zimonjic suffers no ill-effects from his unexpected singles, Serbia would start favourite, especially with Marat Safin’s dodgy foot looking like it may be too much of a risk. And if a Serb win were to leave Djokovic fit for Sunday’s action, there may be a lot of life left in this tie yet.
Related Links on other websites
> Information in Russian - RTF
Related Links on Daviscup.com
> Tie Information
> Scorecards and stats from this tie
> Youzhny takes first point for Russia
> Djokovic and Youzhny to start Russia Serbia showdown
Related Audio
 Interview with Victor Troicki (SRB) - day 1
Interview with Bogdan Obradovic (SRB) - day 1
Interview with Nikolay Davydenko (RUS) - day 1
 
If you cannot hear the audio, then please update your media player by following one of the links above.
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