IN November, the 2021 Davis Cup takes place across three cities in Europe as 18 teams aim to lift the ultimate international men’s team prize. Six groups of three sees the group winner automatically advancing to the knockout quarter finals, with the two next best nations also moving through. In the lead-up to the event, Rookie Me Central will be previewing each of the nations in reverse world ranking order.

SERBIA

Rank: 7th

Captain: Viktor Troicki

The lowest of the top-ranked seeds at the 2021 Davis Cup Finals, the sixth ranked Serbians – and seventh overall in the world – have been blessed with some opposition unavailabilities. Whilst Novak Djokovic put his hand up yet again to represent his nation, the world number one might have thought he would have faced regular rivals Alexander Zverev and Dominic Thiem when taking on Germany and Austria respectively. Instead, he now will set his sights on Jan-Lennard Struff and Dennis Novak who have mountainous tasks to overcome in that singles head-to-head.

Djokovic is almost guaranteed his singles win every time he is out on court, but the Serbians have plenty of depth an options for the second singles. Dusan Lajovic (34th), Filip Krajinovic (42nd), Laslo Djere (51st) and Miomir Kecmanovic (69th) are all highly touted players, with Djere and Kecmanovic the two likely to represent the nation after Djokovic has retired. Captain Viktor Troicki is a Davis Cup winner himself, alongside Djokovic, and one who can still competently play at the level. Though the 35-year-old is well past his prime now, he is still the third ranked doubles player at 247th, despite only playing five tournaments.

It is a similar story for Djokovic who is ranked 313th in the world despite only playing four tournaments, but most expect if the tie is not done by the doubles, the world’s best singles player will double-up. The Serbians might have taken a risk not playing a specialist doubles player, with Lajovic (206th) and Kecmanovic (269th) the highest ranked, though Lajovic is the only one with more than 15 tournaments to his name. In the group stage it might not matter against the lowly Austrians, and likely the Germans providing they do not drop a singles match, but once out of the group, not having regular doubles players might hurt against some established pairings.

Prediction: 1st in Group F

IN A SENTENCE: “It is hard not to see Serbia, lead by world number one Novak Djokovic, advancing through to the knockout stage of the tournament thanks to his main rivals from the other nations being unavailable for the tournament.”

~