Nole is unstoppable. Last night, against Cameron Norrie, you gave Serbia and the history of tennis a new exceptional record. Sinner has the task of trying to beat him
As if it were needed, last night Novak Djokovic added another record to his endless board: by beating Cameron Norrie in the match that gave his Serbia the semi-final against Italy, he became the player of his nation with the most victories in Davis Cup, 44, surpassing his friend, Nenad Zimonjic, former world number one in doubles. He was also there, with Djokovic, in the Davis Cup victory in 2010, against France, a hard-fought 3-2 and gifted, as well as by Nole’s two successes in the singles (against Simon and Monfils), by the current Serbian captain of Davis, Viktor Troicki, who beat Michael Llodra in three sets.
unbeatable
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Djokovic hasn’t lost a complete match in Davis since 2009, and it wasn’t just anyone who defeated him that time, but Rafael Nadal: it was March 8, the Majorcan was an alien, while Nole wasn’t yet RoboNole, and especially on clay there was no story at all, and the 6-4 6-4 6-1 inflicted on the Serbian by the then world number one was there to prove it. It was the only time that Djokovic lost two out of two singles in a match: in that Spain-Serbia match, in fact, Nole was also defeated two days earlier by David Ferrer (6-3 6-3 7-6). Fourteen and a half years have passed and Djokovic, in Davis, has never lost again, except in 2011, when he was injured while challenging Juan Martin del Potro and his Argentina. This is to understand what kind of feat Jannik Sinner will have to accomplish tomorrow, in an attempt to beat Nole in the match between No. 1 in the semi-final.
previous
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Djokovic’s numbers in the competition that offers the largest salad bowl in the world are, needless to say, extraordinary. Very few defeats: 7 in singles (compared to 40 victories) and the same number in doubles, where however he won much, much less (only four times), but obviously he also played less, in a specialty that he really doesn’t love, and which represents perhaps the only weak point of this extraordinary champion. Nole made his debut in Davis at a very young age, not even 17 years old in 2004, beating the Latvian Janis Skroderis with a double 6-2. Still very young (19 years old), he suffered one of his rare defeats by the other representative of the Big Three, Roger Federer, winner over the Serbian in Geneva (6-3 6-2 6-3 the score for the Swiss, who at the time he was undisputed number 1 in the world).
in the target
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The 24-time slam winner has been preaching the second Davis as a great goal since the beginning of the year, many had not taken him seriously, linking the fact that he needed to play to qualify for Paris 2024. Wrong. Nole not only showed up here, two days after the end of the Finals in Turin, but he also went to Valencia immediately after the end of the last US Open, which he also won. At the base there is a great, great attachment of Djokovic to his homeland Serbia: he has answered 34 call-ups and since 2004 he has not participated in the competition on only three occasions (2012, 2014, 2022). He is not only back because of his great friendship with Troicki, but because he wants the second cup. Winning, simply: as always.
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