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Novak Djokovic ATP Cup defeat
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‘We both played well’ – Novak Djokovic and Serbia crash out of ATP Cup to Germany


Defending champions Serbia, led by Novak Djokovic, crashed out of the ATP Finals after a deciding doubles defeat to Germany on Friday.

Germany won the opening singles match, with Jan-Lennard Struff overcoming Dusan Lajovic in a brilliantly edgy encounter.

That result meant Novak Djokovic had to beat Alexander Zverev to keep the tie alive.

Despite Zverev winning the first set on a tiebreak, Djokovic dug in and slowly got on top of the world number seven, wrestling the next two sets from his grasp to set up a doubles decider.

Both Djokovic and Zverev took to the court again, partnered by Nikola Cacic and Struff respectively, and it was Germany who again took the lead before a resilient Serbia battled back to level the match.

However, it was Germany who took the supertiebreaker to book their place in the semi-finals.

“I thought we both played well,” Djokovic said after his singles win over Zverev. “He definitely had a big serving match.

“It was so difficult to play against him today. Missiles from the other side of the court, both first and second serve.

“He was going for it, not too many double faults. You’ve got to give him credit for being courageous and trying his best. Overall it was a very enjoyable match.

“I tried to read his serve. [In the] second set I started to read his patterns a little bit better.

“The third set was a gamble, really. It was anybody’s game. He double faulted on a break point, it was a crucial game.

“I was 15/30 down, I went for it also, a big second serve. Sometimes you win, sometimes you don’t.”


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Michael Graham, Tennishead.net Editor, has been a professional sports journalist for his whole career and is especially passionate about tennis. He's been the Editor of Tennishead.net for over 5 years and loves watching live tennis by visiting as many tournaments as possible. Michael specialises in writing in-depth features about the ATP & WTA tours.