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Dusseldorf Saturday Tennis Summary

Dusseldorf
The rankings say Tomas Berdych and Janko Tipsarevic are very close together. Per-tournament scores say they are rather far apart.

Tipsarevic would probably say the rankings are closer. Because he did a fine job of starting Serbia off in their final with Croatia, beating Berdych 7-5 7-6. That seemed close to a clinch for the Serbs, since the next match featured Radek Stepanek -- who had spend more than four hours on the court the day before. It appeared that it mattered. Stepanek started strong, but faded; Viktor Troicki beat him 2-6 6-4 6-3 -- and, even without Novak Djokovic, Serbia had won the Cup.

The Serbs apparently wanted to add insult to injury; for much of the week, they had been teaming Nenad Zimonjic with Miki Jankovic in doubles. But, for the final, they had Tipsarevic team with Zimonjic against Berdych and Frantisek Cermak. And it worked. The Serbs completed the sweep 6-3 6-1.