Tournament debutants Serbia defeated Germany 2-1 to clinch the ARAG ATP World Team Championship in Dusseldorf!

Viktor Troicki set the Serbians on their way with a 6-4 7-6 (7-5) victory over Rainer Schuettler. And Janko Tipsarevic gave Serbia their second, winning point when he beat Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-2 6-4.


Nicolas Kiefer and Mischa Zverev restored some pride for the host nation by winning the doubles - seeing off Troicki and Nenad Zimonjic 7-5 4-6 10-7 - to reduce the deficit to 2-1.


"I think it is going to be huge and this is respect because Djokovic was not here. And I think we showed that we are a big tennis nation also if Novak is not here with us (laughs)," said Tipsarevic.

Serbia, playing in the eight-team championship for the first time, won the Blue Group with a 3-0 round robin record with victories over Argentina, Russia and Italy. For the week Serbia won nine of 12 matches.


"I really played well because I was 100 per cent prepared for the match," said Tipsarevic, who won three of his four singles matches during the week. "I knew he was going to play good because most of his last matches were pretty easy and he played really really well. And I also talked a bit to Rainer (Schuettler) before the match who gave me the right tactic before the match and I’m happy it worked. (laughing)."

Germany was appearing in the final for the seventh time and they were trying to capture their fifth title, the first since 2005.

"I can’t be that satisfied with my game today," said Kohlschreiber. "I actually had a good feeling. My first service game worked well. But from the back it didn’t really work. It wasn’t good. This went through the whole match unfortunately. In addition, I really had to fight on my own service games. Then you get a bit nervous when you feel that you don’t have that many chances on your own service games. It’s not so easy to find your rhythm. I would have liked to find my rhythms through the return games. He played well today, served very well."





(via atpworldtour.com, photo/AP Photo)

Serbia clinch ARAG ATP World Team Championship title!