Djokovic beaten as Swedes hit back in Davis Cup quarters

PARIS: Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic suffered a rare defeat on Saturday when he and Serb doubles partner Nenad Zimonjic lost 6-4, 7-6 (7/5), 7-5 to Simon Aspelin and Robert Lindstedt as Sweden hit back in the Davis Cup quarter-finals.

World number one Djokovic, beaten just once in singles all year, missed Friday's first day of the tie in Halmstad with a knee injury as defending champions Serbia opened up a 2-0 lead.

And he was unable to repeat the magic which has taken him to the top of the world rankings, as well as eight titles in 2011, as seven-time Davis Cup winners Sweden clung onto their outside hopes of making the semi-finals.

On Friday, Serbia had taken control with world number 16 Viktor Troicki beating Michael Ryderstedt 6-3, 6-1, 6-7 (6/8), 7-5 in the first singles rubber.

World number 29 Janko Tipsarevic then stepped in for Djokovic and enjoyed a comfortable afternoon when debutant Ervin Eleskovic, the world number 355, retired with a knee injury after the Serb had established a 6-2, 1-0 lead.

The winners of the tie will face Argentina in September's semi-finals.

In Buenos Aires, Argentina completed a 5-0 rout of Kazakhstan when Juan Ignacio Chela defeated Evgeny Korolev 2-6, 6-2, 6-0 and Juan Monaco cruised past Mikhail Kukushkin 6-4, 6-1.

The South Americans had already wrapped up the tie on Friday when Chela and Eduardo Schwank saw off Yuriy Schukin and Korolev 6-3, 6-2, 7-5.

Monaco defeated Andrey Golubev 6-3, 6-0, 6-4 and former US Open champion Juan Martin Del Potro beat Mikhail Kukushkin 6-2, 6-1, 6-2 in Thursday's opening singles of a tie brought forward by a day to avoid a clash with elections in the city on Sunday.

Nine-time champions France also made the semi-finals when Michael Llodra and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga overcame Germany's Philipp Petzschner and Christopher Kas 7-6 (7/4), 6-4, 6-4 in Stuttgart.

On Friday, Richard Gasquet came from two sets down to beat German number one Florian Mayer 4-6, 4-6, 7-5, 6-3, 6-3 before Gael Monfils beat Philipp Kohlschreiber 7-6, (7/3), 7-6 (7/5), 6-4.

The French will now face either the United States or Spain in September.