Belgrade: World number two Novak Djokovic shrugged off his recent elbow injury to give Serbia a winning start in their Davis Cup quarter-final against Spain yesterday with a 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 victory over Albert Ramos Vinolas.
Djokovic, who skipped the Miami Masters because of the injury and came into the tie in Belgrade with just seven wins on the tour this year, wrapped up the rubber in style, dropping just one point on serve in the final set against his 24th-ranked opponent.
Viktor Troicki, the world 39, then made it 2-0 for Serbia by seeing off 19th-ranked Pablo Carreno Busta 6-3, 6-4, 6-3.
"I am satisfied with my game, especially with the serve," said Djokovic, who led Serbia to their only Davis Cup title in 2010.
"It worked well today and I won a lot of points off my first serve. At this level that's important."
Five-time winners Spain are without Rafael Nadal after the 14-time Grand Slam champion opted to stay at home to prepare for the clay-court season.
The winners of the tie will face either France or Great Britain in the semi-finals.
Meanwhile, Marcos Baghdatis's record-breaking run of 36 consecutive Davis Cup wins, which stretched back 14 years, was ended yeserday when the Cypriot veteran lost to Tunisia's Moez Echargui.
Baghdatis, the 31-year-old world number 56, had passed the previous best in the competition of 33 wins in a row, held by Swedish legend Bjorn Borg, in March 2016.
But his luck ran out on Friday when he lost 7-5, 7-6 (7/2,), 4-6, 4-6, 6-1 to Echargui in a Europe/Africa zone play-off match in Nicosia. Baghdatis's last Davis Cup loss was in 2003 against Irakli Labadze of Georgia.
In Paris, Lucas Pouille and Jeremy Chardy moved France to the verge of the Davis Cup semi-finals with straight sets wins against a British team missing injured world number one Andy Murray.
Pouille gave hosts France a winning start in the quarter-final with a 7-5, 7-6 (8/6), 6-3 victory over Kyle Edmund.
