New Delhi: Imperious Novak Djokovic tasted his first Davis Cup defeat in five years as Serbia trailed Kazakhstan in their World Group first round match on Saturday.
The world no. 1 teamed-up with his Serbian teammate Nenad Zimonjic for the doubles match, but suffered a tight 6-3, 7-6 (7/3), 7-5 defeat to Andrey Golubev and Aleksandr Nedovyesov in Belgrade.
On Sunday, Djokovic will face Mikhail Kukushkin in a bid to keep the tie alive. The winner of the Serbia-Kazakhstan will play either defending champions Great Britain or Japan in the quarter-finals.
And in the final singles, Viktor Troicki will take on Nedovyesov.
In Rome, Italy became the first team to reach quarter-finals when Simone Bolelli and Andreas Seppi defeated Marco Chiudinelli and Henri Laaksonen 6-3, 6-1, 6-3 in doubles for a 3-0 win over Switzerland.
Switzerland, the champions in 2014, were without star players Roger Federer, who is injured, and Stan Wawrinka, who opted not to play in the tie in Pesaro.
