(Madrid) Serbia beat Dominic Thiem-deprived Austria on Friday in Innsbruck in their first Davis Cup meeting, thanks to a difficult victory by Dusan Lajovic followed by a display by Novak Djokovic.
In the process, the duo Nikola Cacic / Filip Krajinovic concluded the Serbian success 3-0 by also winning the double face the Austrians Oliver Marach / Philipp Oswald 7-6 (7/4), 4-6, 6-3.
Lajovic, 33e world at 31, was clearly superior on paper to his opponent Gerald Melzer, 287e at 31 years old.
But the Austrian has shown that he is better than his current ranking, he who reached the 68e world rank at the end of 2016, but who has since gone through almost two clean seasons (2019 and 2020) due to injury.
So much so that the Serbian could be relieved to win 7-6 (7/5), 3-6, 7-5 in 2:42.
On the other hand, the second single between the best players of each team was dominated by the head and shoulders by the world No.1 who inflicted a 6-3, 6-2 in 58 minutes on Dennis Novak (118e).
Djokovic dreams of completing a record-breaking 2021 season by securing a second Silver Bowl with Serbia.
Germany, deprived of Alexander Zverev, completes this group F.
The final phase of the new look Davis Cup, of which it is the second edition which begins (after 2019, it had been canceled in 2020 due to COVID-19), consists of a group phase with six groups of three teams , spread this year in three different cities, Madrid, Innsbruck (Austria) and Turin (Italy), followed by quarter-finals, semi-finals and final.