ATP Cup 2020: Serbia trounce Russia to reach the finals

What's the story?

Serbia defeated Russia in their semi-final tie of the inaugural ATP Cup today. Going into the tie, Russia was arguably slight favourites, nevertheless, a Novak Djokovic-led Serbia proved too much for the young Russians, as they won the tie 3-0.

In case you didn't know

Serbia is hoping to win the second international tennis tournament trophy in their nation's history. The first, and so far only, time that Serbia won an international tennis title was the Davis Cup back in 2010.

The heart of the matter

The first match of the tie was between Serbia's Lajovic and Russia's Khachanov. The match proved to be a tight affair with the only breaking of serves coming at the end of the first set.

Both players were getting through their service games relatively unscathed in the first set and at 6-5 to Lajovic, it looked as though they were headed for a tie-break. However, Lajovic managed to break Khachanov with the only break point of the match to take the set 7-5.

The second set followed a similar pattern to the first, however, this time it went to a tie-break. Heartbreakingly for Khachanov though, it was a one-sided affair and before the Russian could blink he lost it 7-1 to hand a 1-0 advantage to Serbia.

Next came the highlight match of the tie between Novak Djokovic and Daniil Medvedev. As anticipated, this was a tighter affair, with both players serving up a stunning match of tennis. Djokovic stormed the first set 6-1 before Medvedev levelled the score by winning the second 7-5, in a set that saw a total of 5 breakings of serves.

Going into the final set it was anyone's game, however, Djokovic's bounty of experience saw him through and he took the decider 6-4 to give Serbia an unassailable lead over Russia.

Additionally, the two countries played the doubles match as well, but as has been the case for many of the last few rounds, it was meaningless as the tie had already been settled. Nevertheless, Serbia won this match as well for a clean 3-0 victory over Russia.