Great Britain Davis Cup duo reveal plan to deal with Novak Djokovic

Great Britain doubles pair Neal Skupski and Joe Salisbury are confident they can spring a surprise on Novak Djokovic and Serbia at the Davis Cup.

Serbia are favourites for the competition and why wouldn’t they be with the utterly imperious Djokovic leading the way for them.

However, since Djokovic can only play one singles match of their tie, there is a chance that it comes down to the doubles duo to settle it – but only if Britain make sure they get a point on the board before they are called upon.

“It’s very tough. I mean, they’re probably the favourites for the Davis Cup obviously having Djokovic but then they’ve got a lot of other very strong players as well,” Salisbury told The Express.

“I’m not sure how many but they’ve got a few other guys maybe top 50 so it’s really tough and we’re definitely up against it and they’re the favourites but you never know what can happen.”

On Djokovic specifically, he added: “You got to think, I mean you never know what’s going to happen but he [Novak Djokovic] would be the huge favourite whoever he plays against so all the matches are super important, sot you’ve got to think that you probably have to win the other two.”

Salisbury has come into the Great Britain team in place of Dan Evans, who is being forced to miss out through injury.

There was always a strong argument for including him in the first place though, as it now means Britain has two multi-Grand Slam doubles champions to call upon for what could be the deciding rubber.

“Hopefully we can get that first point on the board and then whoever goes out against Novak can have a bit of a swing and play free and see what happens,” Skupski said.

“Obviously Novak, he’s something else. He’s obviously one of the best of all time. But it’s going to be a very difficult tie. Serbia are great.

“We’ll be looking to try and get it to 1-1. It would be great to have it 2-0 but if it is 1-1, we’ll hopefully put a good doubles team out to try and perform again and get us through.”

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