Novak Djokovic has displayed his commitment to the Davis Cup with a telling decision. The world No 1 has signed up for the doubles at the upcoming Paris Masters with compatriot Miomir Kecmanovic. He previously confessed that Serbia needed to form a solid doubles pair to strengthen their hopes of winning the tournament dubbed the ‘World Cup of men’s tennis’.
Djokovic has been open about his hopes for the rest of the season, revealing that his last remaining goal is to help Serbia win the Davis Cup. The nation is through to next month’s Final 8 in Malaga and will take on Britain in the quarter-final.
The 24-time Grand Slam champion has now shown just how serious he is about helping Serbia lift the trophy, making his intentions clear by using the upcoming Paris Masters to practice a new doubles partnership that could prove crucial to his country’s hopes. Djokovic has teamed up with Kecmanovic to enter the doubles draw at the last Masters 1000 of the season – the perfect chance to see how they work together as a pair on the court.
It comes after the 36-year-old confessed that he had already scouted out Serbia’s opponents and knew that Britain had a strong doubles team in Dan Evans and Neal Skupski. “They are a complete team, they have four top singles players, while one of them, Evans, is extremely good in doubles as well,” Djokovic told Sportal.
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“I saw that he played continuously and that he was the choice of their coach in combination with Skupski. They are very difficult and I hope that we will be able to win after the singles.” It’s not the first time that Djokovic has entered an ATP Tour event with one of his compatriots to try and get some practice in ahead of the Davis Cup.
Earlier this year, Djokovic and Nikola Cacic entered the doubles at the Cincinnati Masters but crashed out in the first round to Jamie Murray and Michael Venus. The pair then ended up playing together during the group stage of the Davis Cup last month but they also lost their only match of the week to Czech duo Tomas Machac and Adam Pavlasek.
It appears that Serbia is likely now testing out a new partnership that could be one of their options for doubles rubbers during Finals week. The nation came close to Davis Cup glory two years ago after reaching the semi-final against Croatia, where the tie went down to a decisive doubles match.
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Djokovic and Filip Krajinovic lost to former world No 1 pair Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic. Afterwards, the world No 1 confessed that Serbia needed to form a proper doubles pairing. “We need to have a doubles team that is constantly playing together, otherwise it’s going to be a Mount Everest to climb for us every time we play like this,” he said at the time.
And Djokovic appears to be doing just that by trying to play with his potential Davis Cup partners on the tennis tour so that they can build some chemistry. After helping Serbia lift the trophy back in 2010, Djokovic will be hoping that he can guide his nation to glory once again across both the singles and the doubles.
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