[reformed]

or if not he should stop saying how patriotic he is. His country is up against a team they can lose to without him but he doesn't care. Not even willing to play 2 matches for his country with the monte carlo masters over a week away

[EaglesPhan36]

Tipsarevic on Stepanek

“After five hours and 10 minutes, instead of shaking my hand, he gave me a middle finger, and told me that I'm a stinking, something bad...” Tipsarevic said.

I don't know why you find it surprising he is not playing. I think it's pretty obvious that he cannot play as many events be it ATP or Davis Cup as he did last year and expect to hold up physically for the year. Nadal is about the only guy who is nuts enough to play Davis Cup when he shouldn't ... but even he held out due to his injury. Otherwise, I think you'll find a lot of the top guys chucking DC for ATP worries instead.

He didn't play in the Sweden series either, but no one cared because obviously it was less competitive.

[reformed]

lets be real he would play 2 matches only one of them even being slightly competitive against berdych ( stepanek would be a cakewalk) . You think 1 semi- serious match is going to hurt him? If anything it would be a good preparation on clay.

[EaglesPhan36]

You know these guys are so anal about their preparation though. There's going to be a difference from the clay in this Davis Cup play and the clay in a couple weeks. I mean I tend to agree with you that it wouldn't hurt for him to play, but I also understand that they have a schedule mapped out and aren't going to change it for anything, country or personal.

[RosieTheGreat]

Prolly something like op bet before realizing that joker wasnt playing.

[reformed]

rosie you are beyond stupid...thats all i can say in response to your comment. It's about representing his country in davis cup on clay with ample time to rest and it actually making sense to play. Do you really think it's hard to know ahead of time who is playing and who isnt?

[EaglesPhan36]

By the way, story I read over the weekend is that Djokovic told Serbian officials he wasn't playing any Davis Cup this year. Mostly due to reducing his match load on the tour and wanting to represent Serbia for the Olympics.

[reformed]

whats does wanting to represent serbia in the olympics have to do with davis cup? Doesnt matter now though , they are done for this year. I guess I cant blame him...federer did the same thing when he was # 1.

[EaglesPhan36]

Think it's pretty easy ... Olympic Medal > Davis Cup Glory that they already got for their showing last year. When you have DC every year and Olympics once every four ... pretty easy to know where the focus will be. Plus last time he only got a Bronze in 2008. So he's going for the Gold.

[reformed]

he better win monte carlo, I would love for him to beat nadal. I wont mind if he wins the olympic gold but would really like federer to get it wimbledon + gold , would be a nice story