Davis Cup: Serbians show who's the boss

It is one thing to hope, and another to actually see it happen. Unfortunately, India's hopes of upsetting the World No.2 Serbians on the opening day of their Davis Cup World Group play-off tie remained just that, and their challenge quickly faded away.

They've been called 'inexperienced', but Serbia's singles players Dusan Lajovic and Filip Krajinovic gave a dominant performance to take a 2-0 lead here on Friday, making it evident that they are a superior force even without their top stars. Both Yuki Bhambri and Somdev Devvarman looked out of sorts against Lajovic and Krajinovic respectively.

Everything seemed to go pear-shaped in Yuki's game and World No.61 Lajovic capitalised, dispatching the Delhi lad 6-3, 6-2, 7-5 in a little over two hours. Krajinovic finished the day with a 6-1, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 win over Somdev.

As the first match began, it was ironically Yuki who shone initially as Lajovic found it difficult to adjust to the high bounce and pace of the ball. The 22-year-old Delhi boy, with the Bangalore crowd behind him, earned his first break point as early as in the third game as he tested Lajovic with a good volley which found no answer from the Serbian. Yuki did not waste much time to capitalise on that advantage and took a crucial lead early in the match.

But thereafter, it was a oneman show as Lajovic returned the favour in the very next game to draw level. Yuki could have managed to hang on to his lead but two consecutive unforced errors allowed Lajovic to sneak back. The roles were reversed and Yuki could not control his shots.

Leading 5-3, Lajovic was serving for the first set and was ahead 40-0 when Yuki suddenly changed gears. The Serbian had to battle hard and took the first set on his eighth set point. But Yuki did not have much to offer in the remaining two sets as Lajovic cruised past.

His single-handed backhand was one of the best features of the match as he effortlessly hit them from the baseline with brilliant precision. In the second singles rubber, Somdev lost the opening set rather too easily. But the top-ranked Indian came back strongly in the second set, breaking Krajinovic, who was playing the first live rubber of his Davis Cup career, in the third game.

Krajinovic, 22, broke back in the eighth game before Somdev capitalised on a break point in the next and served out the set. The crowd was cheering for Somdev and he seemed to have got his panache back, but that was only an aberration. Krajinovic upped the ante and Somdev simply sank. The Indian's serve went cold and the talented Serb ensured that he didn't leave any scope for Somdev to come back.

"I was pretty disappointed with my game. I feel like I am a better player than how I played today. I had enough chances in third set, was up 0-30 on his serve a couple of times. That's the sad part, I gave myself chances, but I didn't take them. He is an aggressive player and can play his shots. I wasn't surprised by his level of play. I was hoping I would play at higher level but unfortunately it didn't happen," said Somdev, admitting that his service was poor and so were his returns.

"I was not really surprised by his game. He is a very good tennis player and there is no question about it. He was favourite to win the match but still I should have come out with a better performance," added the 144th-ranked Indian.