They became the first country to win the trophy five times in the competition’s 34-year history when Philipp Kohlschreiber and Philipp Petzschner beat Juan Ignacio Chela and Maximo Gonzalez 6-3 7-6 (7/5) in the deciding doubles match. Earlier in the day, Florian Mayer had put Germany 1-0 ahead with a 7-6 (7/4) 6-0 win over Juan Monaco, only for Chela to then defeat Kohlschreiber 6-4 7-6 (7/4) to level things up.
Top seed Marin Cilic was one of three big-name casualties in the quarter-finals of the PBZ Zagreb Indoors.
The home favourite was beaten by Germany’s Florian Meyer in straight sets, going down 6-3 6-4.
Another Croatian was also dumped out, with second seed Ivan Ljubicic being beaten by fellow countryman Ivan Dodig 6-4 6-4.
Spain’s Guillermo Garcia-Lopez beat American qualifier Alex Bogomolov Jnr 6-2 7-6 (7/6), while French fourth seed Richard Gasquet’s retirement to injury allowed German Michael Berrer to progress to the semi-finals.
Viktor Troicki continued to be a nemesis for French players when he knocked out last year’s finalist Richard Gasquet in the quarterfinals of the Sydney International on Thursday. The Serbian fourth seed was too strong for Gasquet, winning 6-4, 6-4 in 77 minutes to set up a Friday semi-final with Germany’s Florian Mayer. Troicki became a national hero when he swept Serbia to an historic first Davis Cup title in easing past Michael Llodra in straight sets in the fifth and deciding rubber in Belgrade last month.
“In the past few months I’ve played pretty good against the French guys,” Troicki said. “Surprisingly I beat them in straight sets. “It’s going good and hopefully I can continue. It’s not easy to play against them, but for me, I guess it suits me.”
In Friday’s other semifinal Frenchman Gilles Simon will play Ernests Gulbis, the Latvian third seed. “I thought I had the match under control and I had a break in the second set,” Troicki said. “Richard started playing better and started playing some really great shots. “Luckily, at the end I broke him and served it out. So it was a tough one. I mean, he’s an ex-top 10 player.” Mayer cruised to a comfortable 6-4, 6-1 victory over Italian Potito Starace.
Simon, who was hindered by a persistent right knee injury for the first half of last year, wore down Ukraine’s Alexandr Dolgopolov 6-4, 6-3 to set up a last-four shot at Gulbis. Simon, who reached the quarterfinals of the 2009 Australian Open, continued his fine tournament after ousting Taiwan’s eighth seed Lu Yen-Hsun and Portugal’s Frederico Gil to line up against Gulbis. The former world number six said he was now trussing his right knee after suffering chronic inflammation which forced him out of last year’s French Open. “I’m really happy to play without any pain, because a lot of time I had something,” Simon said. “It’s now two months that I can work on it normally without thinking about it. I’m not thinking any more about where I’m going to put my feet or anything. Just run.”
Gulbis worked his way into the semi-finals after beating Ukraine’s Sergiy Stakhovsky 6-4, 6-4. Gulbis said he pulled up badly from his previous day’s win over Russian Igor Andreev. “Yesterday’s match killed me physically,” he said. “It was really humid and I lost a lot of fluids, so I went straight to the hotel and I went to sleep. I didn’t feel good. “This morning I didn’t know if I was going to be able to play, but at the start of the match I felt really good.
“I will do some treatment. I will go to have a bath, ice massage, whatever it takes. I’m going to be okay tomorrow. “I just can’t go really long matches (but) don’t tell Simon.” Gulbis is the top-ranked seed left in the Sydney draw, after Wednesday’s exit of US top seed Sam Querrey and the injury-enforced withdrawal of defending champion and second seed Marcos Baghdatis.
Marin Cilic became the first big-name casualty of Wimbledon 2010 when he lost in the first round, but Nikolay Davydenko narrowly avoided joining him through the exit door.
The 11th-seeded Croat, a semi-finalist at this year’s Australian Open and rated as a dark horse by some in SW19, slumped to a straight-sets defeat at the hands of Florian Mayer.
The German triumphed 6-2 6-4 7-6 (7/1) at the All England Club.
Mayer reached the quarter-finals on his Wimbledon debut back in 2004 and will be hopeful of another good run after this result.
Davydenko, meanwhile, had to dig deep before finally seeing off Kevin Anderson in a five-set thriller which lasted more than four hours.
The Russian enjoyed his last visit to London – he won the ATP World Tour Finals at the O2 Arena last November – but it appeared his return was turning sour when he fell two sets down to the big-serving South African, who finished with 36 aces.
Davydenko only recently returned to the tour after suffering a broken wrist earlier in the year and he looked a little rusty in the opening exchanges.
But he showed plenty of character to turn the match round, much to the delight of the crowd on Court One, and he recovered to post a 3-6 6-7 (3/7) 7-6 (7/3) 7-5 9-7 victory.
Novak Djokovic recovered from an early onslaught by Olivier Rochus and a mid-match closing of the Centre Court roof to book his place in the Wimbledon second round on Monday.
Djokovic, who trailed 3-1 in career meetings against the feisty 5-ft-5 Belgian, looked set for an early exit after Rochus’s crisp groundstrokes and shrewd shot placement gave him a two sets to one lead.
But Djokovic seemed reinvigorated once fading light prompted the closure of the roof after the third set and clinched the fourth before going on to seal a 4-6 6-2 3-6 6-4 6-2 triumph.
The Serb will play American Taylor Dent in the second round.
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