DJOK RAF AND TUMBLE

Novak hauls Serbs to glory

NOVAK DJOKOVIC shot down Rafa Nadal to inspire Serbia to victory in the inaugural ATP Cup.

World No.1 Nadal, representing Spain, was beaten in straight sets in his singles match by Djokovic.

And Djokovic then partnered Viktor Troicki to a doubles win over Pablo Carreno Busta and Feliciano Lopez as Serbia, who had trailed 1-0, won 2-1 in Sydney.

“I’ll remember this experience for the rest of my life,” Djokovic said on court. “This is one of the nicest moments in my career. I’ve been very blessed to have an amazing career over the last 15 years but playing for my country with some of my best mates, you can’t match that.” Earlier, Djokovic had won a hotly-anticipated clash against Nadal (below) 6-2 7-6 to keep the Serbs alive. For all the hype given to the meeting, the outcome was perhaps no surprise as Djokovic (above) prevailed against the world No.1 on a hard court for a ninth straight time.

Nadal had break opportunities in the sixth game of the second set but could not find a way past Djokovic, who overpowered the Spaniard in the tie-break.

“Every time I play Rafa we get to play a lot of exciting points,” Djokovic said. “We had some incredible exchanges.”

After that defeat, Nadal and his team decided he would sit out the decider.

“I have been playing a lot of tennis the last couple of days,” Nadal said. “My energy is lower than usual, because I played long yesterday, very long before yesterday, very long in (Perth) the last day. So it’s a team decision.”

Serbia had needed Djokovic to win to keep the tie alive after Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut beat Dusan Lajovic 7-5 6-1 in the opening singles contest.