Stepanek, Czechs Repeat As Davis Cup Champions

Congratulations to all Czech Nationals and fans world wide….GREAT FEAT this to win back to back!!

Nole’s staright set wins against formidable czechs after what he has done last couple of months says a lot abt his character….simply IMPRESSIVE!

Looking forward to a restless 2014 now…. :)

November 17th, 2013 at 10:40 pm

thoughts go out to stan wawrinka.

berdych and stepanek have now won two davis cups as a two man team (impossible according to federer fans).

clearly if federer (the greatest, most magically beautiful player ever to play the game) had properly committed during his prime, when stan was still a high level player, they could have made AT LEAST one davis cup final and probably won it if indoors.

as for the serbs, it was unbelievably stupid not to play djoker in the doubles. that was their only chance. expecting a guy outside the 100 in his first davis cup to win against either berdych or stepanek was ridiculous.

November 17th, 2013 at 11:39 pm

Last 24 matches – 13 top 10 wins, last 9 matches – 8 top 10 wins, Novak was running on fumes. Berdych played 16 matches after the USO, Novak 22.

As for Czechs, they deserved to win DC but sometimes you have to be lucky, they beat Switzerland without Roger, Argentina without Delpo and now Serbia without Troicki and Tipsarevic.

November 18th, 2013 at 12:15 am

Martina former did it again.
And Berdych won his first title of the year, of course, it was not in singles
As the great Czech poet Karel Hynek in his epic poem “May” wrote:

Late evening, on the first of May –
The twilit May – the time of love.
Meltingly called the turtle-dove,
Where rich and sweet pinewoods lay.
Whispered of love the mosses trail,
The flowering tree as sweetly lied,
The rose’s fragrant sigh replied
To love-songs of the nightingale.
In shadowy woods the burnished lake
Darkly complained a secret pain,
By circling shores embraced again;
And heaven’s clear sun leaned down to take
A road astray in azure deeps,
Like burning tears the lover weeps.

You, who in your distant courses
embrace the earth with secret arms,
you melted stars, blue shades of sky,
you mourners, saddening yourselves,
dissolving into silent tears,
I choose you now as messengers.
Where in your distant course, you drift,
and there, wherever you find a shore,
in wandering, greet the land for me.
Oh, lovely earth, beloved earth,
my cradle and my grave, my mother,
my only homeland, my given inheritance,
this vast earth, this one and only!

In my sad eyes two hot tears well,
likes sparkles on the lake they play on my face,
because that lovely age, my childhood
was stolen far by time’s wild rage.
And far away its dream is like a shadow, dead,
far as the image of white cities drowned beneath the lake,
far as the last thoughts of the dead,
their names, the noise of ancient wars,
the faded northern lights, extinguished fire therein,
the tone of a broken harp, the sound of a snapped string,
the deeds of days gone by, the light of a dead star,
the lost path of a will-o’-the-wisp, the passion of a dead lover,
forgotten grave, eternity’s sunken home,
the smoke of an extinguished fire, the voice of smelted bells,
the song of a dead swan, humanity’s lost paradise,
this is my lovely childhood.

November 18th, 2013 at 2:24 am

If ever there was proof to Roger Federer that he could have won Davis Cup despite his excuse that it’s pointless because Switzerland sucks, this is it. The Czechs are repeat champions and they did it with only 2 men.

Fed and Waw are both top 10 players, and they won Olympic gold in doubles together. DC was winnable, but it’s going to remain an empty space in his cabinet because he was too selfish to play for his country when he was the best in the world.

November 18th, 2013 at 3:08 am

“As for Czechs, they deserved to win DC but sometimes you have to be lucky, they beat Switzerland without Roger”

Roger rarely plays DC. It’s his own fault for not caring about anything other than his own career.

“as for the serbs, it was unbelievably stupid not to play djoker in the doubles. that was their only chance. expecting a guy outside the 100 in his first davis cup to win against either berdych or stepanek was ridiculous.”

They were counting on winning the doubles. Djok is no doubles specialist, but they had Zimonjic who is an accomplished doubles player, and thought it would be enough to beat Berdych and Step who don’t normally play doubles. And if they lost, they was the chance that the Czech twosome might fatigue for day 3. Step is after in his mid 30s.

I think it was a reasonable gambit. Berdy is a worthy opponent for Djok, so they didn’t want to take risks playing him on saturday and instead gave him a day of rest so he could be fresh and have an advantage over Berdy. Then they hoped Step would be too tired to beat the youngster in match 5.

November 18th, 2013 at 3:16 am

Apparently joker didn’t turn up to the gala dinner last night, an event at which he was the host.
#BadSportsman
# PetulantKid

November 18th, 2013 at 5:00 am

http://alturl.com/ewgdx
Witty Berdy in full flow.

November 18th, 2013 at 5:45 am

Djokovic needs to take his head out of his a$. Khaki bastard. Happy for the Checks.

November 18th, 2013 at 6:12 am

It was pretty obvious that the winner of the doubles would win the final. Maybe Berdych doesn’t play that much in doubles, but he often plays in DC with Steps. So it was not a surprise to see them turn up for the doubles.

November 18th, 2013 at 7:51 am

Queen, you are always so gracious and beam with intelligence, that is simply pleasure reading your comments…very classy lady indeed.

November 18th, 2013 at 12:01 pm

Giles????How old are you?10 years old? Probably less regarding your comments.Bad sportsman?Petulant kid? Go to tread about Nadal and write some Vamos…
I come home, put computer on, want to read some interesting tennis news and relax but what I see-yours and Queens comments. God, there is no 3 grams of brain between you to…
Don’t bother to answer back and now what Vamos means. Or you going to write something different for a change???…hmmm…no, I didn’t thinks so.

November 18th, 2013 at 12:07 pm

Agree with Courbon you would think with everything thats going on in the world at the moment,people would actually lighten up a bit,the bickering is getting tiresome,please remember people its only a game,i actually work with a girl who has family in the Philipines say no more :((..

November 18th, 2013 at 12:16 pm

Bad Back Rules, yes they beat Swiss with just two players. Lucky for Czechs that Swiss only have one patriot!

November 18th, 2013 at 12:26 pm

Tennis-X…aka The Itchy and Scratchy Show…fight fight fight…fight fight fight.

November 18th, 2013 at 12:28 pm

@alison. Which part of @courbon’s post do you agree with?

November 18th, 2013 at 12:37 pm

Giles im going pass,as im not really in the mood for another spat,i had enough of that yesterday.

November 18th, 2013 at 12:46 pm

@alison. Don’t you realise that your post at 12 16 pm was uncalled for? I made comments to which @courbon responded and then you butt in and take sides to cause more aggravation. It was for me to respond to courbon or not!!

November 18th, 2013 at 1:04 pm

———-
…an event at which he was the host.
———-
Lie, Novak was a guest, it was official Davis Cup (ITF) dinner, Novak declined invitation, same as Tipsarevic.

November 18th, 2013 at 4:10 pm

^^^ Joker fans say otherwise. He was the host!!!
The host that didn’t turn up!

November 18th, 2013 at 4:31 pm

I just read that only Tipsarevic and Troicki attented that party.

BTW, Djokovic was tested during the double match; he had to give four samples (the quality was the problem, so he had to drink) and left 5 hours in the locker-room.

Finally, it seems strange that Djokovic was ready to play the doubles after his match against Stepanek, then declined to play. It certainly wasn’t Obradovic’s decision, since he decides nothing, but Novak’s. What was the problem? Zimonjic was very disappointed in an interview.

November 18th, 2013 at 5:05 pm

Another lie,
———-
RT @tomasberdych Arrived for official @DavisCup dinner and Djoko is not here, does he stay in “garage”??
9:11 AM – 18 Nov 2013
———-

Check the link somebody posted @5:45am.

November 18th, 2013 at 5:19 pm

^^^
Not for you mat4.

November 18th, 2013 at 5:22 pm

BKR:

Checked the link. You really can’t trust the newspapers…

I found somewhere that, when Obradovic inadvertently said that he counted on a certain victory of Novak over Radek, Djokovic commented cynically :

“Yes, of course, it is already 1-0”

meaning that it was one thing to count on it, another to win that match.

November 18th, 2013 at 5:26 pm

@BKR:

I knew it, although the link was worth checking.

November 18th, 2013 at 5:27 pm

mat4, just the fact that someone’s moniker is bad knee rules speaks volumes about the types of posters on this site.

Hilarious!

November 18th, 2013 at 5:52 pm

giles i feel sorry for u,u have huge complex from serbs hahha

November 19th, 2013 at 12:08 am

I felt bad for Dusan Lajovic having to lose like that in front of the home crowd in a deciding match. But, great win for Radek Stepanek and the Czech Republic.

November 19th, 2013 at 12:32 am

“As for Czechs, they deserved to win DC but sometimes you have to be lucky, they beat Switzerland without Roger, Argentina without Delpo and now Serbia without Troicki and Tipsarevic.”

No luck bro. You can get lucky against an opponent but your luck will run out eventually.

They managed to do this back to back as a two man team, which is enough proof that neither title was a fluke. You can get lucky in your draw, or get choice of ground against the right opponents, but if you can back it up with another win a year later, I think you’ve erased any doubts.

Everyone thought Nadal was a fluke for making it to a Wimbledon final in 2006 because he was never supposed to be any good on that surface. Five Wimbledon finals later, I think everyone has to admit he can play on that stuff.

The Czechs have proven their quality. I hope Roger rues missed opportunities.

November 19th, 2013 at 1:55 am

Who said it was fluke?

November 19th, 2013 at 2:03 am

Congratulations to Czech Rep! Great to see them take the DC title back to back.

November 19th, 2013 at 4:20 am

Now I know what mat4 was talking about. I found this one on another forum and I’m reposting it as it is. Somebody translated it, good or bad I’ve got no idea, but now it makes sense why Novak wasn’t on the bench during the doubles match. Has this ever happened to any other tennis players? The timing of it seems very odd … almost suspicious!

———-
Inhumane treatment of Novak, testing below human dignity!

Dr. Milinkovic said about the five-hour anti-doping testing Djokovic had to go through on Saturday: He was forced to give samples four times, forced to have more food and beverages than he ever needed.

While the battle was fought at the court on Saturday in the deciding match of the Davis Cup final, Novak Djokovic was not on the national team bench. Our best player wanted to be with Ilija and Nenad for this match, but that was not possible. In fact, from the locker room he had to go right into the doping room, where he spent next five hours.

Taking the sample from Novak was [done in such way that it was ] a real torture, below the dignity and professional ethics, Dr. Zdeslav Milinkovic national team physician said for “Evening News” magazine.

– Serbian Tennis Federation and myself are absolutely willing to respect WADA rules. It is necessary to reduce doping in sports, which is also respected by Novak and all the other Serbian tennis players, no matter what the circumstances were recently. However, the story has two sides. Doping controls are obligations of all the athletes, and they all have them, but what is not clear to me why all that often goes beyond the normal procedures – respected orthopedic surgeon begins his story.

There are many inconsistencies in what had happened, said Dr. Milinkovic.

– The fact that Novak was picked for testing in the day when he didn’t play and only an hour before deciding doubles match, it was not fair. These tests are normally done either early in the morning or after the match. But although he is the leader of the team, Novak has agreed to do everything requested and without any objections. On the other hand, he could not support the team because he was tested for the duration of the match. Five hours he spent there!

The doctor explains why everything took so long.

– The sample taken must meet certain standards set by WADA. Bodily fluids are part of the decomposition process and this concentration depends on how much food we have taken. Standards are well known, but Novak has the perfect hydration and it is in absolute balance. However, he was forced to give samples four times during the test. Forced to have more food and beverages than he needs just to meet the standards in terms of density, acidity and other parameters as per WADA requirements.

Milinkovic doesn’t hide dissatisfaction with such treatment of Djokovic.

– It was a mistreatment of the superb athlete and had nothing to do with medical profession, codes and ethics. I was personally annoyed with that, but Novak has done everything without any objections. A complete stranger was in the room all the time, during all those five hours; Novak was not allowed out of the room and he had to be careful about what he was talking with his loved ones. It was beneath the human dignity. Novak took it all well, but couldn’t they let him out to support his team mates instead. That’s why I think that his remark [from a week ago] that something has to change in the anti-doping procedures is completely in place – says doctor Milinkovic.
———-

November 19th, 2013 at 4:35 am

BKR:

Yes, that’s what I referred to.

November 19th, 2013 at 5:14 am

Dont really know which thread to put this on,but for the Brit fans of tennis Margot,Colin,Raquet,The DA just to let you know Baltacha has retired from tennis.

November 19th, 2013 at 8:16 am