BELGRADE — World No. 1 Novak Djokovic of Serbia will play against the 41st ranked Canadian Vasek Pospisil at the opening match of a Davis Cup semifinal showdown in Belgrade Friday. Djokovic, who suffered his third loss in four consecutive trips to the US Open final against Spain's Rafael Nadal Sunday, will try to get his team off to a good start, as Serbia eyes Davis Cup glory after victory in 2010 against France. The trophy was a prelude to a magnificent 2011 season for the 26-year-old Serbian, which saw him win the US and Australian opens and Wimbledon. The first match, starting at 1400 GMT, will be followed with by a rubber between Montenegro-born Canadian Milos Raonic, the world No. 11, and the 23rd-ranked Janko Tipsarevic. In the doubles Saturday, Nenad Zimonjic and Ilija Bozoljac will face Pospisil and his teammate Daniel Nestor. Zimonjic plays against Nestor, his former partner with whom he won Wimbledon twice (2008 and 2009) and the 2010 French Open. Djokovic and Raonic play each other Sunday, while Tipsarevic and Pospisil will play the last match. The tie is set to be played on an indoor clay court before a sell-out crowd of 15,000 at Belgrade Arena. The winner will advance to November's final against either Argentina or the Czech Republic. In Prague, Radek Stepanek of holder Czech Republic will take on Argentina's Juan Monaco in the opening rubber of the Davis Cup semifinals also Friday. Stepanek, the world No. 61 and the Czech No. 2, will face Argentina's number-one player, the 30th-ranked Monaco, at Prague's O2 Arena at 1300 GMT Friday. After that rubber, fifth-ranked Tomas Berdych will face world No. 93 Leonardo Mayer on the superfast acrylic hardcourt, on which the Czechs won last year's finals against Spain. On Saturday, the Czech Republic's Jiri Vesely and Lukas Rosol are due to face Argentina's Horacio Zeballos and Carlos Berlocq. But the Czechs are likely to change their doubles duo and rely on Berdych and Stepanek, who have so far only lost one of 13 Davis Cup doubles rubbers together since teaming up in 2007. Nadal leads Spain Fresh from winning his 13th Grand Slam title at the US Open, Rafael Nadal will lead Spain in its Davis Cup World Group playoff against Ukraine this weekend. The 27-year-old world No. 2, who has not played for Spain since its 2011 Davis Cup triumph against Argentina, will play on his favorite clay surface in the tie at Madrid's Caja Magica. Nadal will face Sergiy Stakhovskiy in the second singles rubber Friday, after Fernando Verdasco and Alexandr Dolgopolov meet in the first match. Elsewhere, Andy Murray will make his Davis Cup return for Great Britain in its tie against Croatia. The Wimbledon champion will face Borna Coric in the first singles rubber Friday in Umag. Roger Federer will not feature for Switzerland in its tie against Ecuador, but world No. 10 Stanislas Wawrinka, a semifinalist at the US Open last week, will feature for the Swiss. Meanwhile, Philipp Kohlschreiber will play the opening rubber for host Germany in Friday's Davis Cup World Group playoff against Brazil's Rogerio Dutra Silva, ranked 102 places below the German. The 29-year-old Kohlschreiber, 25th in the world, takes on the 127th-ranked Brazilian indoors on hard court in Ulm, south-west Germany, with Florian Mayer playing Thomaz Bellucci in Friday's second singles rubber. And Poland will be without their leading player, 14th-ranked Jerzy Janowicz when they face an Australia team led by Lleyton Hewitt in Warsaw. — Agencies
