On Thursday, November 23, the Davis Cup quarterfinal matches ended. The entire final part of the tournament takes place in Malaga (Spain). Today the players representing Italy, Holland (this was the third quarterfinal), Serbia and Great Britain (this was the fourth) took the field.
The highlight of the entire first stage of the playoffs was the performances of the 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic and world number four Jannik Sinner, two of the best tennis players in the world at the moment. Djokovic and Sinner played in the final of the ATP Final Championship on Sunday, but still agreed to help Serbia and Italy, respectively.
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At the same time, Novak expressed his discontent with the Davis Cup format before the tournament. Let us remember that the group stage of the final phase is played in four European cities and the playoffs in one. Since 2019, the tournament has abandoned home-and-away matches.
Novak Djokovic flew to Malaga for the 2023 Davis Cup
Photo: Social networks
“Personally, I think the best format would be between the old and the new. But this is still bad for the teams participating in the World Group. It’s a shame that we haven’t played cup matches in Serbia for a long time. Our young people, the younger generation of tennis players, do not see with their own eyes how we play.
Personally, I can’t formulate an ideal format for me. I think this issue should be addressed in a closed debate. We need to discuss it with the players and the teams. Everyone should express their opinion, because so far no one from the ITF has contacted us.
I think the Davis Cup is historically known at home and away. Now the tournament has been held for several years in a single country: first in Madrid, now in Malaga. And this, it seems to me, is excessive. The place must change. The tournament should cover the whole world,” Djokovic said at a press conference.
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Miomir Kecmanovic and Jack Draper participated in the first match of the Serbia-Great Britain match. Kecmanovic won in two tiebreaks: 7-6 (7-2), 7-6 (8-6). At the same time, Draper did not have a single break point throughout the match. And the Serbian could only take his opponent’s serve in the first game, but missed all four opportunities.
After this, Djokovic entered the court and was confronted by Cameron Norrie. Novak understood that his victory meant that Serbia would advance to the semifinals. In the first set, Djokovic only needed one break, which he scored in the fifth game. In the seventh game, the Serbian missed a triple break point and then another, but that did not affect the result. Norrie had no break points throughout the match and the set went to the Serbian: 6:4 in 48 minutes.
Novak started the second game with a break to love. In the long fifth game he was able to take his opponent’s serve again, but lost all five break points. Serving for the match at 5:4, Djokovic did not lose any points: 6:4, 6:4 in 1 hour 42 minutes.
As for Sinner, he helped the Italian team reach the semi-finals. However, the day did not start very well for the representatives of the Apennine Peninsula. In the first match of the day, Matteo Arnaldi lost to Botik van de Zandshulp, losing three match points: 7:6 (8:6), 3:6, 6:7 (7:9).
And then Sinner got to work. In the first set of the match against Tallon Grikspor, he missed a double break point (the opponent had none) and won the tiebreaker 7:3. In the second game, Yannick’s advantage was no longer in doubt and the game, which lasted only 1 hour and 15 minutes, ended with a score of 7: 6 (7: 3), 6: 1 in his favor.
After this, Sinner joined forces with Lorenzo Sonego, and was opposed by Grixpor and Wesley Koolhof. In this doubles match the fate of the ticket to the semifinals was decided and the Italians turned out to be stronger. After breaking each set, Sinner and Sonego won the match 6:3, 6:4. The match lasted almost an hour and a half.
“Fatigue? I think all the players were a little tired at the end of the season. Not only physically, but also psychologically. It’s been a very long season for all of us. Obviously, every week is different. I got here not long ago “But physically I feel one hundred percent prepared for the competition,” Tennis365 quotes Yannick.
As a result, the second semi-final pairing of the 2023 Davis Cup will be Italy and Serbia. This meeting will take place on Saturday, November 25. The Italians have only one title in this prestigious competition, and even that title was won a long time ago, back in 1976. The Serbs also celebrated success once, but relatively recently, in 2010. Furthermore, Djokovic was already part of the national team.
Thus, on Saturday, Djokovic and Sinner will be able to play their third match in a week and a half. Let us remember that in the final phase the Italian won the group and in the final the Serbian was stronger.
And on Friday, November 24, Finland and Australia will compete for the first ticket to the final. In the quarterfinals, the Finns sensationally eliminated the Canadians, who had won the Davis Cup a year ago. The representatives of this northern country reached this phase of the tournament for the first time in history. The Australians, who defeated the Czech team in the quarterfinals, have 28 Davis Cup titles to their name (including the performance of the Australasian team at the beginning of the 20th century), second only to the United States (32) in this indicator .
The Davis Cup final will take place on Sunday, November 26. Follow all the events of the “Championship”.
THE NAIS IS OFFICIAL EDITOR ON NAIS NEWS