Serbs ready to bump Aussies from Davis Cup
BELGRADE: Serbia's growing legions of tennis fans have a rare chance to roar on their fast-rising stars this week when Novak Djokovic spearheads his Davis Cup team outing against Australia.
World No 3 Djokovic's Serbia is confident of banishing Australia - the second most successful country in the Davis Cup - from the elite stages of the competition for only the second time in its history.
"I'm optimistic because of the results that players from our squad have achieved in recent times on the international scene," the 20-year-old said ahead of the Belgrade tie.
Djokovic has gone from strength to strength in 2007 along with fellow Serbs Janko Tipsarevic, Nenad Zimonjic, Viktor Troicki and, in the women's game, world No 3 Jelena Jankovic and sixth-ranked Ana Ivanovic.
His rewards have been ATP titles in Adelaide, Miami, Estoril and Montreal, where he became the first player for 13 years to beat the world's three top-ranked players in the same event.
The emergence of Djokovic, Jankovic and Ivanovic in particular has been all the more remarkable for a country that lacks the resources to train and support new talent, or even host any tournaments of significance.
In what is expected to be the highest attended non-final in Davis Cup history, Serbia hopes to avenge the 5-0 trashing Australia handed it last time they played at the competition's world group stages in 1991.
Victory therefore against Australia before a sell-out crowd of almost 20,000 in the capital this weekend would do much to further raise the profile of the game in the Balkan country.
"We haven't been in the strongest group over the past 15 or 20 years, since the collapse of Yugoslavia," said Djokovic.
"There will be psychological pressure on me as the third-ranked player in the world, Ziminjic as the fifth player in doubles, and on Tipsarevic," the Serbian No 2 singles player.
"We're favorites and we've made the necessary preparations we need for victory."
Australia has conceded it is the underdogs up against the Djokovic-inspired Serbs on a clay court surface that was laid only last week inside the massive Beogradska Arena.
The 28-time champions will be at full strength with a squad made up of former world No 1 Lleyton Hewitt, Chris Guccione, Peter Luczak and Paul Hanley.
Serbia has at its disposal the experience of Nikola Pilic, the former Yugoslav player who became the first captain to win the Davis Cup with two different nations - Germany in 1988, 1989 and 1993, and Croatia in 2005.
"We're playing a very important tie. We have to play very well against Australia," said the Munich-based Croat who has been brought on board to advise Serbia captain Bogdan Obradovic.
"We are favorites on paper, but it won't be easy to win."
AFP
(China Daily 09/19/2007 page23)
