Novak Djokovic The season is over as Serbia wins the Davis Cup from Croatia

Novak Djokovic’s dream to add another Davis Cup to his 20 Grand Slam titles broke on Friday when Serbia beat Croatia in the semi-finals. Djokovic and partner Filip Krajinovic lost 7-5, 6-1 to Olympic and Wimbledon winners Mate Pavic and Nikola Mektic in a decisive duel rubber. Croatia, the 2005 and 2018 Davis Cup winner, will face either Russia or Germany in Sunday’s final.

Djokovic had previously defeated Marin Cilic for the 18th time to keep Serbia alive.

The world number one who has been unbeaten in the tournament in doubles since 2011 won 6-4, 6-2 and raised to Serbia 1-1.

This was his 19th Davis Cup singles win in a row.

In the opening round, Borna Gojo, who finished in a low position of 279, won a surprise victory in the 33rd place in the world list from Dusan Lajovic 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.

Cilic, the former third in the world list now dropped to 30, created eight break points in Djokovic’s bid, but was unable to change any.

The defeat for Serbia meant Djokovic ended his 2021 season when he painfully missed the first calendar Grand Slam tournament, with the male player losing the U.S. Open final in more than half a century.

His hopes for the first Olympic gold also collapsed in Tokyo.

However, he ended the year in a draw with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal in 20 slams, reaching the end of the year on the world chart for the seventh time and marking a total of 350 weeks in the top spot on Monday.

Djokovic has also expanded his Masters record collection to 37 titles.

Gojo has played well above his world rankings in the tournament so far and showed a real flair against Lajovic to return from the opening round, especially after taking the 4-2 and 40-0 lead in the first set and losing 17 in the next set. 18 points.

He also saw Italian Lorenzo Sonego (ranked 27) in the quarterfinals and Australian Alexei Popyrin (67) in the group stages.

“In the first set, I was in the lead 4-2 40-0, controlling and slipping in that game. I lowered myself a bit, but then the captain and the teams and fans took me back,” Gojo said.

“Obviously the Davis Cup is a special competition where the pressure is higher for everyone and I managed to play some of my best tennis here in this tournament.

“I’m very glad I managed to get those big wins, in terms of ranking, but it’s more important to me that I managed to get a point for the team.”

Croatia had lost both of its previous meetings with its Balkan neighbors.

Promoted

The first came in Split in 2010, when Serbia won the semi-finals 4-1 on the way to winning the race.

They also won 5-0 in 2015.