{"id":140144,"date":"2021-02-05T03:00:39","date_gmt":"2021-02-05T02:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/?p=140144"},"modified":"2021-02-06T19:03:58","modified_gmt":"2021-02-06T18:03:58","slug":"novak-fends-off-zverev-challenge-to-keep-serbia-on-semi-final-course","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/news\/tennis\/novak-fends-off-zverev-challenge-to-keep-serbia-on-semi-final-course\/","title":{"rendered":"Germany dethrones defending champions Serbia at ATP Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

After Struff had beaten Lajovic and Novak edged Zverev, the German doubles team secured the win against Serbia and a spot in the ATP Cup semi-finals.<\/p>\n

Novak faced stiff resistance before rallying to seal his second singles win in Group A.<\/p>\n

Serbia’s and world no.1 Novak Djokovic improved his perfect singles W\/L record at the ATP Cup<\/a> on Friday, following a 6-7 (3), 6-2, 7-5 victory over Alexander Zverev in two hours and 33 minutes.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

There were no breaks in the first set. Zverev grabbed the tie-breaker to gain advantage. Djokovic quickly regained his composure, and with a double break, he sealed the second set to level. The two exchanged breaks once in the deciding third set, before Novak made a crucial break and closed out the match on second attempt.<\/p>\n

The hard-fought win kept defending champion Serbia alive against Germany, after Jan-Lennard Struff had put his team in-front by prevailing against Dusan Lajovic 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, earlier in the day.<\/p>\n

Match statistics: aces (11-16), double faults (5-8), winners (29-32), unforced errors (27-45), total points won (105-90).<\/p>\n

The tie was decided by a doubles rubber, with the winner Germany booking the last four meeting with Russia.<\/p>\n

Novak partnered Nikola Cacic against Alexander Zverev and Jan-Lennard Struff. The Serbian duo lost the match after a thrilling battle, 6-7 (4), 7-5, 7-10.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Novak extended his perfect singles ATP Cup record, defeating Alexander Zverev in three sets 6-7 (3), 6-2, 7-5. The tie was decided by a doubles rubber (Djokovic\/Cacic l.to Zverev\/Struff 6-7, 7-5, 7-10).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":140192,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[101013097,101012354,101012415],"class_list":["post-140144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tennis","tag-atp-cup-en","tag-australia-en","tag-melbourne-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140144"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":140224,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140144\/revisions\/140224"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}