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Djokovic Leads Serbia into First Davis Cup Final

LOS ANGELES — Tennis Channel will provide exclusive coverage of Serbia and France’s Davis Cup championship competition in Belgrade this weekend, with live and same-day “Instant Encore” replays Friday through Sunday. The battle between first-time Davis Cup finalists Serbia and nine-time Davis Cup champions France will consist of two singles matches on Friday, Dec. 3, at 8 a.m. ET, followed by the doubles match Saturday, Dec. 4, at 9 a.m. ET. Tennis Channel’s coverage concludes with the remaining singles play Sunday, Dec. 5, at 7 a.m. ET. Each of the five matches is worth one point, with the team that wins at least three points winning the Davis Cup title. Each evening at 7 p.m. ET Tennis Channel will offer an encore presentation of the day’s Davis Cup action.

Coverage from Belgrade Arena in Belgrade (all times ET):Friday, Dec. 38 a.m. - Live Singles #111 a.m. - Live Singles #2{2 p.m. - Instant Encore Singles #1}{5 p.m. - Instant Encore Singles #2}{8 p.m. - Instant Encore Singles #1}{11 p.m. - Instant Encore Singles #2} Saturday, Dec. 49 a.m. - Live Doubles{12 p.m. - Instant Encore Doubles}{9:30 p.m. - Instant Encore Doubles} Sunday, Dec. 57 a.m. - Live Singles #110 a.m. - Live Singles #2{1 p.m. - Instant Encore Singles #1}{9:30 p.m. - Instant Encore Singles #1} Serbia and France have never faced each other in Davis Cup play. Serbia enters this weekend’s matchup with victories over the United States 3-2, Croatia 4-1 and the Czech Republic 3-2, and will be bidding to win its first Davis Cup title. France reached its first final in eight years by defeating Argentina 5-0 in Lyon, France, and remains undefeated against Argentina. The French team has lifted the Davis Cup trophy nine times, most recently in 2001, when France defeated Australia 3-2 in Melbourne.

France is currently tied with Britain for third place on the all-time list of Davis Cup champions, trailing only the United States (with 32 titles) and Australia (28 titles). The French team has finished runner-up on six occasions, most recently losing 2-3 to the Russians in the 2002 Davis Cup finals. France is captained by Guy Forget and features Gael Monfils, Michael Llodra, Gilles Simon and Arnaud Clement. Serbia has a relatively short Davis Cup history, competing as Serbia & Montenegro from 2004-2006 and Yugoslavia from 1995-2003. Serbia is captained by Bogdan Obradovic and features World No. 3 Novak Djokovic, Nenad Zimonjic, Janko Tipsarevic and Viktor Troicki.

Tennis Channel (tennischannel.com) is the only 24-hour, television-based multimedia destination dedicated to both the professional sport and tennis lifestyle. A hybrid of comprehensive sports, health, fitness, pop culture, entertainment, lifestyle and travel programming, the network is home to every aspect of the wide-ranging, worldwide tennis community. It also has the most concentrated single-sport coverage in television, with telecast rights to the US Open, Wimbledon, Roland Garros (French Open), Australian Open, Olympus US Open Series, ATP Masters Series, top-tier Sony Ericsson WTA Tour championship competitions, Davis Cup and Fed Cup by BNP Paribas, and Hyundai Hopman Cup. Tennis Channel is carried by nine of the top 10 MSOs, Verizon FiOS TV, AT&T U-verse, DIRECTV and DISH Network.

Posted on December 1, 2010
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