Tennis Davis Cup- Federer in, Djokovic Out

Two major stars in the tennis world took a different approach to the Davis Cup semifinals as Roger Federer is set to play for Switzerland, and Novak Djokovic will be absent for Serbia, claiming ‘fatigue.’

Both players were involved in the 2014 US Open semifinals just a week ago but lost surprisingly to unexpected opponents.

Roger Federer is set to play for Switzerland in the first semifinal for his country in 11 years; the Swiss will take on Italy.  Federer clashes against 76th-ranked Simone Bolelli and teammate and fourth-ranked Stan Wawrinka follows against 17th-ranked Fabio Fognini.

Federer lost the US Open semis to Croatian Marin Cilic, who ended up as the tournament’s champion.

“This tie obviously is the focus right now,” said Federer, who typically plays down the team event’s importance, after Thursday’s draw. “But after that I still have some big tournaments coming up.”

“It’s a record crowd for Switzerland I can’t wait for that to happen,” said Federer, who helped the Swiss beat Kazakhstan 3-2 in the previous round in April, when the same venue held 16,000.

Djokovic, on the other side, won’t play as Serbia takes on India in a best-of-five series starting Friday for a spot in next year’s World Group.

“I spoke to Djokovic last night, and he said he will not come to India,” Serbia captain Bogdan Obradovic said. “The main reason for this being fatigue.”

Novak lost to Kei Nishikori in the US Open semis and now the Serbian team, who will also be  without Janko Tipsarevic will include reserve player Ilija Bozoljac for this series.