Innsbruck: Serbia thrashed Austria 3-0 in their Davis Cup opener in Innsbruck on Friday, with Novak Djokovic racing past Dennis Novak.
After Dusan Lajovic beat Gerald Melzer 7-6, 3-6, 7-5 behind closed doors owing to a revival of the coronavirus in Austria, Djokovic overcame Novak 6-3, 6-2 in an hour. Then, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, Nikola Cacic and Filip Krajinovic defeated Oliver Marach and Philipp Oswald.
After winning three of the season’s four Grand Slams, Djokovic is looking to cap off an already historic year.
“I love to play for my country, when they need me, I’m here,” Djokovic said after his match.
Elsewhere in Turin, Italy defeated the United States 2-1, while Spain defeated Ecuador in Madrid.
With the support of a raucous home crowd, Italy surged to a 2-0 lead over the United States, due to victories by Lorenzo Sonego and Jannik Sinner.
On the first day of the revamped 2021 finals, brothers Elias and Mikael Ymer helped Sweden beat Canada, France beat the Czech Republic, and Croatia beat Australia.
Due to the epidemic, the Davis Cup, which originated in 1900 as a bilateral competition between Britain and the United States, was cancelled in 2020.
This year’s tournament includes 12 qualifiers, including Australia, Austria, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Kazakhstan, Sweden, and the United States, as well as the semi-finalists from the previous edition, Spain, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the Russian Tennis Federation.
Two wild card nations, France and Serbia, join them.
These 18 countries are divided into six groups of three, with the champions and top two second-place finishers advancing to the quarter-finals.
The semi-finals and final will all be held in Madrid on December 5, as a reward for the squad that won the championship two years ago after the 2020 edition was postponed due to the Covid-19 outbreak.
