After just two days of action this week, the semifinal on the bottom half of the Davis Cup draw is already set up: it will be Serbia paying a visit to France in a rematch of the 2010 final.
France, which lost at the final hurdle seven years ago in a tough road tie against the Serbs, is one round away from a return trip after finishing off Great Britain on Saturday afternoon. Benefiting from home-court advantage on the red clay of Rouen, the French side clinched a 3-0 victory by winning the doubles rubber. Julien Benneteau and Nicolas Mahut outlasted Jamie Murray and Dominic Inglot 7-6(7), 5-7, 7-5, 7-5 after three hours and 20 minutes.
“It’s an amazing feeling to be able to give the winning point for our team,” Benneteau said. “We’re going to celebrate tonight.”
“(It’s) really frustrating,” a much different-feeling Inglot commented. “It’s tough when you’ve worked really hard the whole week and you feel like you’ve let [the team] down a little bit.”
Serbia joined France in the final four when Nenad Zimonjic and Viktor Troicki beat the Spanish duo of Pablo Carreno Busta and Marc Lopez 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-0, 4-6, 6-2 on the indoor hard court of Belgrade. That result was preceded by singles victories courtesy of Troicki and Novak Djokovic on Friday.
“It was always a possibility that the tie would be over on Saturday when you play a strong team like Serbia,” Spanish captain Conchita Martinez admitted. “It also helps when you play at home on this fast surface with overwhelming fan support. When someone serves and plays so well like Troicki did against us, you are always going to be under pressure.”
On the other side of the draw, Sunday singles will decide the two competitions. Australia is leading the United States 2-1, while Belgium owns a 2-1 advantage over Italy.
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