What a surprise!!!! Czech Republic win its 2nd consecutive title.
The surprise didn’t really come from the final as Serbia wasn’t able to put a competitive player to team up with Djokovic in the singles. The surprise was that according to the rankings Czech Republic shouldn’t have the strongest team. But apart from a good Berdych (world no.7) they can rely on a super Radek Stepanek that despite his age (34) and rankings (44) he becomes a great player during this competition.
The Final
As predicted the most important point was the doubles as Nole was meant to win both singles and world no. 117 Lajovic was expected to lose both. Eventually that happened, but the real issue was not making Djokovic play the doubles as Berdych and Stepanek were just too much for Zimonjic and Bozoljac. OK, the Serbian team managed to beat the Bryans this year, but this was much different.
Djokovic – Berdych 6-4, 7-6 (5), 6-2
This was a straightforward win. Nole was playing like a world no.1 (he is no.2. but it seems he forgot that!) and he didn’t leave much to Tomas that commented “It’s really hard to find right and correct words to explain at what level he’s playing and how strong Novak is,”
Stepanek – Lajovic 6-3, 6-1, 6-1
That wasn’t pretty for the Serbian. The only nice moment for Lajovic was the first game when he broke Stepanek. Then… bye bye. The match was an odd walk in the park with Radek conceding only 5 games to his opponent.
An emotional Stepanek commented “It’s difficult to find right words for emotions I am going through now. It was a completely different experience than last year. I was very focused, concentrated, I knew what to do on court. We made history for our country today.”
