Viktor Troicki and Novak Djokovic cleared their openers against John Isner and Sam Querrey respectively today in Belgrade. Troicki put in an admirable performance in his upset against Isner.

The Americans faced an uphill battle from the beginning since the Davis Cup tie is played on clay, and I guess American men do not play on clay anymore. They could have been in a sweet spot if Isner had beaten Troicki. The Bryan brothers are handle themselves on clay, so a 2-1 lead could have been possible.

Now, the only way for an American victory is a total Serbian implosion. Nenad Zimonjic has been a nemesis for the Bryan brothers, but he is without his partner, Daniel Nestor. Even if the Serbs lose in doubles tomorrow, Djokovic should be able to put away Isner on Sunday.

Serbia vs. USA
Friday’s Results
R1 – Viktor Troicki (SRB) def. John Isner (USA) 7-6(4) 6-7(5) 7-5 6-4
R2 – Novak Djokovic (SRB) def. Sam Querrey (USA) 6-2 7-6(4) 2-6 6-3

Saturday’s Match
R3 – N. Zimonjic (SRB)/J. Tipsarevic (SRB) vs. M. Bryan (USA)/B. Bryan (USA)

(Images: AP)

Janko Tipsarevic upset third-seed Andy Murray 7-6(3) 4-6 6-4. After losing the first set, Murray rallied to win the second set, but the world no. 39 was able to hold off the current world no. 4. It is a solid victory for the third-ranked Serb, who has had a so-so year so far. The two-match streak this week brings his record this year to 4-2.

He is the second Serb to book a spot in the quarterfinals after Novak Djokovic was able to skirt trouble from another Serb, Viktor Troicki. Tipsarevic will play seventh-seed Mikhail Youzhny in the quarterfinals. The 25-year-old Serb leads Youzhny 2-1 in their head-to-head meetings.

Wednesday’s Results
Singles Second Round
2 Novak Djokovic (SRB) def. Viktor Troicki (SRB) 3-6 6-4 6-2
Janko Tipsarevic (SRB) def. 3 Andy Murray (GBR) 7-6(3) 4-6 6-4
Michael Berrer (GER) def. 4 Nikolay Davydenko (RUS) 6-3 RET. (left wrist)
Ivan Ljubicic (CRO) def. 5 WC Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA) 7-5 6-3
6 Marin Cilic (CRO) def. Q Stefan Koubek (AUT) 6-2 7-6(6)
7 Mikhail Youzhny (RUS) def. Q Bjorn Phau (GER) 7-6(2) 6-4
Jurgen Melzer (AUT) def. Tommy Robredo (ESP) 6-3 7-5
Marcos Baghdatis (CYP) def. Q Somdev Devvarman (IND) 6-3 3-6 6-1

Doubles First Round
F. Lopez (ESP)/T. Robredo (ESP) def. 1 D. Nestor (CAN)/N. Zimonjic (SRB) 6-3 3-6 10-7
A. Clement (FRA)/R. Lindstedt (SWE) def. WC R. Bopanna (IND)/A. Qureshi (PAK) 5-7 7-6(5) 10-8
4 F. Cermak (CZE)/M. Mertinak (SVK) def. 4 N. Davydenko (RUS)/I. Kunitsyn (RUS) walkover (Davydenko - left wrist)

Doubles Quarterfinals
S. Aspelin (SWE)/P. Hanley (AUS) def. 3 M. Bhupathi (IND)/M. Mirnyi (BLR) 6-4 6-4

Thursday’s Order of Play

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(Image: Barclays Dubai Tennis Championship)

Fernando Verdasco poses for Hola! Magazine. Let’s hope all the topless action helps him prepare for the US Open Series. (Socialite Life)

Karlovic is a Croatian MC and has the song to prove it. While his single is magnificent -- for all the wrong reasons -- on its own, Djokovic may team up with the tennis ace to make a hip-hop single. It could be double the magnificence (Blic)

Rafael Nadal maybe iffy for Montreal (Open Court)

Mario Ancic’s mononucleosis continues to sideline the Croat. He and Nalbandian (hip) will miss the US Open this year (Tennis)

Rafael Nadal regrets playing in the Madrid Masters Series because it led to a lack of preparation for the French Open (Rafael Nadal)

Richard Gasquet wins a spot in the 10 Best Bad Excuses. The tennis genius has now been slapped with a defamation lawsuit (Fox Sports, TimesOnline)

Marat Safin thinks tennis has become too professional (Tennistalk)

Andre Agassi will replace Novak Djokovic in an exhibition with Marat Safin on Aug 28 (WSJ)

Tipsarevic is upset over allegations about his integrity. Curious betting patterns caused scrutiny after a Tipsarevic-Hernandez match in Stuttgart on July 15 (Blic)

Rafael Nadal purchased a house in DR. From the press release, it looks more like the Spaniard lent his name to a development project (Daily Commercial News)

City: Eastbourne, Great Britain
Surface: Outdoor Grass
Championship Points: 250
2008 Singles Champion: Igor Andreev
2008 Doubles Champions: Bruno Soares and Kevin Ullyett

Igor Andreev is the top-seed and will defend his title against Dmitry Tursunov, Paul-Henri Mathieu, Mikhail Youzhny, Janko Tipsarevic and Ivan Ljubicic. Youzhny has had the hot hand of late, and he could possibly give Andreev some trouble in the quarterfinals.

Tournament Draw
Singles / Doubles

(Image: AFP/Getty Images)

Serbia beat Germany 2-1 to take the ARAG ATP World Team title. Viktor Troicki and Janko Tipsarervic were able to seal the deal in singles action for Serbia's first trophy in Dusseldorf.


Championship Results
Serbia Beat Germany 2-1
Viktor Troicki (SRB) def. Rainer Schuettler (GER) 6-4 7-6(5)
Janko Tipsarevic (SRB) def. Philipp Kohlschreiber (GER) 6-2 6-4
N. Kiefer (GER)/M. Zverev (GER) def. N. Zimonjic (SRB)/V. Troicki (SRB) 7-5 4-6 10-7

(Image: AP)

It was a bad day for some of the seeded players in Belgrade. Brazilian Marcos Daniel took down sixth-seed Ivan Ljubicic 6-4 6-3. Qualifier Flavio Cipolla upset seventh-seed Arnaud Clement 1-6 6-4 6-2. Luckily, fourth-seed Andreas Seppi restored order by beating Leonardo Mayer 6-4 6-1.

Perhaps the surprise of the day came on the doubles side. Marko Djokovic (that’s right, Novak’s younger brother) and Darko Madjarovski (pictured) defeated top-seeds Daniel Nester and Nenad Zimonjic 7-6(2) 2-6 10-6. The Serbian pair will play Johan Brunstrom and Jean-Julien Rojer in the quarterfinals.

Janko Tipsarevic and Viktor Troicki, the other Serbian pair, were not so lucky. They were defeated by second-seeds Lukasz Kubot and Oliver Marach.

(Image: Serbia Open)

Top-seed Novak Djokovic debuted in his second round match with Janko Tipsarevic in an all-Serbian affair. The ATP world no. 63 was able to take a set from Djokovic, who is currently having a good clay-court season. The current world no. 3 took care of business in the final set by winning at love and outlasting Tipsarevic 6-2 4-6 6-0.

Djokovic advances into the next round where he will play another Serb Viktor Troicki, who had a routine win over Marcel Granollers 6-3 6-4. Troicki is currently 1-0 over Djokovic in their head-to-head match-up. Their last meeting was on clay in Croatia in 2007.

On the other side of the draw, third-seed Igor Andreev retired after just five games due to a rib injury. Lucky loser Lukasz Kubot now advances into the round of 16 and will face Kristof Vliegen, who upset eighth-seed Christophe Rochus in an all-Belgian battle.

Wednesday’s Results
Singles First Round
Q Flavio Cipolla (ITA) def. WC Marcos Baghdatis (CYP) 1-6 6-3 6-1
Brian Dabul (ARG) def. Nicolas Massu (CHI) 6-2 -1
Leonardo Mayer (ARG) def. Wayne Odesnik (USA) 6-3 6-2

Singles Second Round
1 Novak Djokovic (SRB) def. Janko Tipsarevic (SRB) 6-2 4-6 6-0
LL Lukasz Kubot (POL) def. 3 Igor Andreev (RUS) 3-2 Ret’d
5 Viktor Troicki (SRB) vs. Marcel Granollers (ESP) 6-3 6-4
Kristof Vliegen (BEL) def. 8 Christophe Rochus (BEL) 3-6 6-4 6-3

Doubles First Round
3 S. Huss (AUS)/R. Hutchins (GBR) def. J. Levinsky (CZE)/J.C. Scherrer 7-6(6) 6-4
R. Wassen (NED)/I Zelenay (SVK) def. R. Karanusic (CRO)/I Karlovic (CRO) 7-6(4) 4-6 10-7
J. Brunstrom (SWE)/J.J. Rojer (AHO) def. C. Rochus (BEL)/L. Zovko (CRO) 6-2 6-3

Thursday’s Matches
Singles Second Round
2 Ivo Karlovic (CRO) vs. Brian Dabul (ARG)
4Andreas Seppi (ITA) vs. Leonardo Mayer (ARG)
6 Ivan Ljubicic (CRO) vs. Marcos Daniel (BRA)
7 Arnaud Clement (FRA) vs. Q Flavio Cipolla (ITA)

Doubles First Round
1 D. Nestor (CAN)/N. Zimonjic (SRB) vs. M. Djokovic (SRB)/D. Madjarovski (SRB)
2 L. Kubot (POL)/O. Marach (AUT) vs. J. Tipsarevic (SRB)/V. Troicki (SRB)
M. Granollers (ESP)/S. Ventura (ESP) - S. Querrey(USA)/S. Roitman (ARG)

Thursday's Order of Play

(Image: Serbia Open)

It is a bad day for the Musketeers and another bad day for France in general. Yesterday, French hopefuls Julien Benneteau and Jeremy Chardy were bounced from the tournament. Today, Argentine David Nalbandian dismissed Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-5 3-6 6-3.

Ninth-seed Gael Monfils crashed out of the tournament after 67 minutes of play. He lost to Serbian Janko Tipsaravic, ATP world number 56, 6-1 6-3. Sporting a new haircut, the Frenchman was up a break 3-1 in the first set until Tipsarevic rattled off five straight games to snatch set from the Frenchmen. The Serb then cruised to take the next set and match in front of a stunned crowd.

Qualifier Andreas Beck, the troublemaker of Monaco, already sent Nicolas Kiefer home yesterday. The ATP world number 89 upset sixth-seed Gilles Simon 7-5 6-1.

Beck broke the Frenchman early in the first set, but Simon rallied to tie the set 3-3. Simon did his usual gig of hanging out behind the baseline while Beck punished any short return and cut off points quickly. The German then broke Simon in the ninth game to serve for the set, but Simon broke back. Beck then struck again to take the Frenchman’s serve, but this time Beck held serve for the first set. In the second set, Simon won the first game and then the 23-year-old qualifier won the next six games for the set and match.

Simon continues to struggle this year. He clearly needs to step up his game and stop hanging out behind the baseline. Luckily for Simon, most of his points are at the end of the season, and he has some time to get it together before he starts really sliding in the rankings.

Monfils has had a pretty good season in the smaller tournaments, but just average in the larger tournaments. Then there is this performance where he is sent home in the first round of a Masters tournament.

If this keeps up, Musketeer Watch might become Musketeer Intervention. There seems to be less swashbuckling and more buckling of late. Luckily, Tsonga is scheduled to play in the next tournament.

(Images: AP)

Spain finally got a chance to play Serbia this weekend. After a one day delay, the two teams squared off. There was worry that the contest would last until Monday and put a kink in the players’ travel plans for the upcoming Indian Wells tournament. All went perfectly and the singles and doubles matches were completed.

In order for Serbia to have a chance against the defending champions, Novak Djokovic was going to have to beat David Ferrer. That did not happen. David Ferrer beat Djokovic in straight sets 6-3 6-3 76(4).

If Ferrer's win was done in convincing fashion, then Rafael Nadal’s victory over Janko Tipsarovic was a complete blow out. He won in straight sets 6-1 6-0 6-2 in 96 minutes of work. Nadal was all business and merciless against the Serb. The Spaniard only dropped three games for the entire match.

Since the two singles matched went relatively quickly, they were able to start and complete the doubles match. Djokovic was scheduled to play, but Serbian team captain, Bogdan Obradovic wanted him to rest since he did not play well against Ferrer and will need to rest to play Nadal tomorrow. Viktor Troicki substituted for Djokovic and played with top-ranked, doubles specialist, Nenad Zimonjic.

Troicki and Zimonjic faced Tommy Robredo and Feliciano Lopez. The Serbs needed to win to stay in the tie. Once the match started, Zimonjic showed why he is a top-ranked doubles player. He was devastating against the Spaniards at the net. The Serbs bested the Spaniards in straight sets 7-6(5) 6-4 7-6(7) to stay in the hunt.

Tomorrow, Nadal will play Djokovic, and Ferrer will go against Tipsarevic. Serbia needs to win both matches, and they are going to need a miracle with the way Ferrer and Nadal are playing.
(images: Sergio Carmona)