Jan Kodes of the Czech Republic, the 1973 Wimbledon champion and 1970-71 French Open champion, is the author of the new book JAN KODES: A JOURNEY TO GLORY FROM BEHIND THE IRON CURTAIN, a one-of-a-kind coffee table book featuring incredible, never-been-published historic photos. The book, featuring many anecdotes and stories about Czech tennis including Martina Navratilova, Ivan Lendl and others, is available for $35.96 on amazon.com here: http://www.amazon.com/Jan-Kodes-Journey-Behind-Curtain/dp/0942257685/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1280583452&sr=8-1 Jan also was a singles runner-up at the US Open in 1971 and in 1973.
The “big match” of the last day of the Davis Cup semifinal between the Czech Republic and Serbia in Belgrade was a great match between the two No. 1 players – Tomas Berdych from the Czech Republic and Novak Djokovic of Serbia. Berdych started much better as he gained a lot of confidence from winning the doubles on Saturday and Djokovic still could not find his legs or his timing. At the start, he was not playing his best and losing the longer rallies. Berdych’s game was OK and he looked as though he was going to be the winner through the middle of the second set. However, suddenly Djokovic started to wip his groundstrokes very deeply. His confidence returned and he was hitting several great passing shots and his game turned around. Berdych started to feel the pressure and made few bad volleys. From the third set on, Djokovic dictated the game with his power and finished the match as the Serbian hero!
This made the score 2-2. Radek Stepanek and Janko Tipsarevic stepped on the court for the fifth rubber. Stepanek got off to a very bad start. He could not get into the match at all and lost the first set 6-0. Janko was fresh and played solid from the baseline while Stepanek, who played in doubles the previous day, looked a little tired. He started to take more risks and his game improved. However, the Serb was supported heavily by the home crowd and he was lucky to win the tie-breaker to give him a two-sets to love lead and went on to win in three sets.
It was a big win for Serbia to reach the final of the Davis Cup for the first time. It would have been an excellent effort for the Czechs to reach the final for a second straight year, but it was not to be.