Djokovic Injury Moves Argentina Into Davis Cup Finals
September 19, 2011 | By Long Island Tennis Magazine Staff
Photo credit: Kenneth B. Goldberg
Novak Djokovic of Serbia has withdrawn from his match at the Davis Cup, allowing Argentina to gain a 3-1 lead over Serbia advancing them to the Davis Cup finals against Spain. Djokovic’s back pain overwhelmed the top ranked player against Juan Martin Del Potro, forcing him to retire early in the second set of the match.
Argentina will go on to play against Spain in the finals to be held Dec. 2-4 in Spain. Djokovic also pulled out of the opening singles against David Nalbandian also because of back pain after he defeated Nadal in the 2011 U.S. Open finals. He went on to be replaced by Viktor Troicki, who lost the match in four sets.
Del Potro defeated Janko Tipsarevic in his opening singles match, where Serbia hung on in their doubles match to take them into the semifinals, hoping that Djokovic would be able to lead a comeback match in five sets. That would never happen as Djokovic fought his own body in hopes of being able to complete the match, but saw that he was unable to.
"He was playing on a very high level," said Djokovic. "I can’t say that even if I was healthy that I would have won. He was serving so well that even when I was on the ball, I could not handle the returns."
