Djokovic, Tipsarevic send Serbia into Czech showdown

Novak Djokovic and Janko Tipsarevic led Serbia into a Davis Cup final clash with defending champions the Czech Republic after over-turning a 2-1 deficit to beat Canada 3-2 in the semi-finals. Serbia, the 2010 champions, will host the November 15-17 final against the Czechs who had already made sure of victory in their semi-final on Saturday when they opened up an unassailable 3-0 lead against Argentina in Prague.

World number one Djokovic kept Serbia alive in Belgrade by seeing off world number 11 Milos Raonic 7-6 (7/1) 6-2 6-2. Tipsarevic, the world number 24, then assured Serbia of a second final in four years by defeating Vasek Pospisil 7-6 (7/3) 6-2 7-6 (8/6). But Pospisil went down fighting, coming back from 5-2 down in the third set and saving four match points in the ensuing tiebreaker. ‘I played at my own tempo from the beginning and I knew the returns would be crucial, so I paid special attention to them,’ said Djokovic, who had defeated Pospisil in Friday’s opening singles.

In Prague, Argentina won the two dead rubbers with Horacio Zeballos beating Lukas Rosol 4-6 7-6 (8/6) 6-4 and Leonardo Mayer defeating Jiri Vesely 6-4 6-4. Radek Stepanek and Tomas Berdych, who had won their singles on Friday, had wrapped up the tie for the Czech Republic on Saturday by beating Carlos Berlocq and Zeballos in the doubles, 6-3 6-4 6-2.

Australia returned to the World Group for the first time in six years with Bernard Tomic supplying the crucial third point against Poland with a 6-4 7-6 (7/5) 6-3 win over Lukasz Kubot in Warsaw. The victory gave Pat Rafter’s team an unassailable 3-1 lead.

Meanwhile, Serbia’s coach Bogdan Obradovic couldn’t hide satisfaction as his team reached a second final in four years. ‘I could not expect anything better than this, turning Canada’s 2-1 lead into victory with two 3-0 wins, this is really spectacular,’ Obradovic said.