DAVIS CUP FINALS

September 15, 2022

Captain Troicki

Nikola Cacic

Dusan Lajovic

Team Serbia

Press Conference

GRANOLLERS-MARTINEZ/Cacic-Lajovic

6-7, 6-2, 6-2

Spain - 3

Serbia - 0

THE MODERATOR: Questions in English.

Q. Captain Viktor, obviously not the result you would have wanted today, but what do you do to come back tomorrow, and how important is it for the guys to sort of start afresh tomorrow and come back against Korea?

CAPTAIN TROICKI: It's already tomorrow (smiling). So for basically today, especially in the first match, unfortunately didn't happen. A lot of unused chances. Definitely we knew we were playing against the favorites, Spain at home. Definitely a tough task. But without Alcaraz, I honestly thought we had a chance to sneak through, at least to get the tie, deciding in doubles.

Yeah, after disappointing losses like this, let's say there were three really tough matches. Boys gave everything. You know, they fought till the end. Unfortunately luck wasn't today with us, but hopefully tomorrow will be better.

As I said, we need to recuperate and then get our thoughts and focus for a match against Korea.

Q. Can you explain the decision not to play Filip? The Spanish said they were expecting to play him in singles. Was he injured? Is there a reason he wasn't playing?

CAPTAIN TROICKI: He wasn't today with us at all. He stayed in the hotel. There was a reason. I don't know if you've seen him around here, but he wasn't with us today.

Q. Can you explain any more about the situation?

CAPTAIN TROICKI: Physically he was not fit today. He didn't sleep well. Had some food poisoning. Yeah, hopefully tomorrow he'll be better.

Q. Nikola, obviously like the captain said, really close matches today. How do you look back on it? Is it sort of nice to get on court, get a feel for the court and ball, looking ahead to tomorrow?

NIKOLA CACIC: Yeah, it's not easy to play after two tough matches, singles, and waiting all day, cheering for our boys. But we had a good moment today, good games that we felt on the court, balls.

So I think it's going to be better tomorrow. I hope we will have a good rest today, tonight, to be ready for the next match.

Q. Dusan, looking ahead again to tomorrow obviously to Korea, were you surprised at the level they showed against Canada? Has that given you more of an understanding of their game, or were you already aware of all of the players?

DUSAN LAJOVIC: Well, yeah, definitely. It's always complicated in Davis Cup, and all the ties that have been played today and yesterday, they were close matches. They had a chance in the first singles yesterday.

We don't know the guy very well. He's been playing mostly futures and challengers, but he's played a great match against Vasek who is a very quality player.

Soonwoo Kwon, he's 8-0 I think in Davis Cup. Maybe not against the players that are this caliber, but anyways, that gives you a lot of confidence. I think they play with nothing to lose and a lot of confidence, as we'll.

So they're going to be tricky, but, you know, we've got to find our way to win tomorrow and this is the only thing that's in our mind right now.