Serbia suffer 3-0 defeat to Czechs in Davis Cup as Finland down United States in surprise upset

Serbia lost 3-0 to the Czech Davis Cup team as Finland sprung a surprise to defeat the United States.

In the singles matches, promising young Serbian player Laslo Djere suffered a narrow 7-6(7) 7-5 defeat to Jiri Lehecka, and the tie was put beyond Serbia’s reach when Jakub Mensik enjoyed a relatively straightforward 6-3 6-2 victory against Dusan Lajovic.

Novak Djokovic then teamed up with Nikola Cacic in the doubles match as they faced the pairing of Tomas Machac and Adam Pavlasek.

Djokovic and his team-mate had little to play for in their dead rubber, having already won their opening two rounds in the round-robin stage.

The world No. 1 and Cacic fell 7-5 in the first set before winning the second to set up a tie-break. However the Czech team claimed an easy 10-3 win to maintain a perfect record in group C, with Serbia in second spot after suffering their first defeat in Spain.

The Czech team finished the group stage with a perfect record, winning all nine of the matches they played and reaching the last eight for the first time since 2016.

Serbia had already qualified for the quarter-finals after beating Spain on Friday.

In Group D, Finland defeated United States – after winning both their singles matches.

Emil Ruusuvuori was able to defeat Tommy Paul 7-6(1) 6-4 before Otto Virtanen battled past Mackenzie McDonald 7-6(5) 1-6 7-6(7).

Rajeev Ram and Austin Krajicek then teamed up against Patrick Kaukovalta and Harri Heliovaara in the dead rubber doubles tie, with Finland claiming a clean sweep. They are currently top of the group with two wins and a defeat, and the USA are third, meaning Finland and Netherlands progress.

Earlier in the day Australia defeated Switzerland 3-0 in their group, ahead of Great Britain’s tie with France on Sunday to decide who will join Australia in the next round, and Canada defeated Chile 2-1 as the defending champions topped Group A. Chile will have to wait to find out the result between Italy and Sweden to see if they make the cut.