Murray's thunder stolen by Djokovic

An 18-year-old who reached the third round at Wimbledon and broke into the world's top 100 in a spectacular debut year secured a memorable Davis Cup victory for his country here at the Braehead Arena yesterday. Unfortunately for the home crowd the youngster in question was not Andy Murray but Novak Djokovic, who was born just seven days after the British No 1 and has been making a similarly impressive mark on the world game.

Djokovic's victory over four tight sets against Greg Rusedski ensured that Serbia and Montenegro would go through to a play-off later this year for a place in the élite World Group. Britain, in contrast, will have to beat Israel in a home match in July, probably on grass, if they are to avoid going into a play-off match against Ukraine to decide who will be relegated from the Europe-Africa Zone into the Davis Cup's third division.

Murray and Djokovic have been good friends since their junior days together and the rest of the British team saw for themselves what an accomplished player the Serb is when he beat Arvind Parmar on the first day here.

Crucially, the world No 64 had been able to rest following that match, while Rusedski, having won a close four-set singles against Janko Tipsarevic on the same day, had since played in Saturday's doubles alongside Andy Murray. Their 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 defeat by Ilia Bozoljac and Nenad Zimonjic left Britain needing to win both of yesterday's singles matches and Rusedski with precious little time to recover.

Jeremy Bates, the British captain, aware of the heavy demands that would be made on his leading players, had made several unsuccessful attempts to move back the last day's start time. However, he said that the International Tennis Federation, under what he understood to be pressure from the BBC in the light of a busy sporting weekend, had remained adamant that play should start at 11 in the morning.

"By the time we finished last night we got back to the hotel at 7pm, had dinner and then were back here at 9am this morning," Bates said. "That's not good preparation for a team. I think we shot ourselves in the foot." Given those circumstances and the 14 years he was giving away, it was remarkable that Rusedski ran Djokovic so close, losing 6-3, 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 in just over three hours. The British No 2 never wilted against an opponent with a sparkling array of shots and great speed around the court. Djokovic packed a particularly heavy punch with his backhand, which he thumped across court and down the line with great precision and regularity as Rusedski attempted to dominate the net.

When the 32-year-old Briton could get to the ball he put away most of his volleys with aplomb. He also hit some cracking forehand winners, but his patiently sliced backhands failed to induce the number of errors that Tipsarevic had made on Friday.

Djokovic's greatest problem was returning Rusedski's thumping serve, though the Briton's greatest weapon also let him down at critical times. To go with his 17 aces he served 15 double faults, including three in a row at the end of the eighth game to give Djokovic the only break of the first set.

Boldly attacking the net, Rusedski broke Djokovic at 5-4 to take the second set, but two more double faults in the next game saw the Serb draw first blood in the third, which he went on to win courtesy of two further breaks.

The fourth set was a desperately close affair. In the tie-break Djokovic set up two match points when Rusedski put a difficult smash into the net after the Serb had played a wonderful lob while retrieving what looked to be a volley winner. Rusedski saved both, only to hand victory to Djokovic with a double fault when he served at 6-7.

At least Parmar finished the day with something to smile about. The 28-year-old Briton beat Bozoljac 7-5, 6-4 in the final contest to record his first Davis Cup win at the seventh attempt.

Davis Cup: Great Britain 2 Serbia & Montenegro 3: Friday G Rusedski (GB) bt J Tipsarevic (Serb) 6-3 6-7 7-5 7-5; N Djokovic (Serb) bt A Parmar (GB) 6-3 6-2 7-5. Saturday A Murray and G Rusedski (GB) lost to I Bozoljac and N Zimonjic (Serb) 3-6 6-3 3-6 4-6. Yesterday N Djokovic bt G Rusedski 6-3 4-6 6-3 7-6; A Parmar bt I Bozoljac 7-5 6-4.