The red hot rivalry between two of the world’s most successful tennis players of the modern era, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, is set to continue this week-end but this time the intensity is expected to reach fever pitch as they will be battling for national honours.

The current world number one, Nadal, will represent Spain whilst Djokovic will lead the attack for Serbia in the first round of the 2009 Davis Cup World Group.

This time around the Spaniard seems to have the high ground as not only is he the leading men’s player in the world by leaps and bounds, showing formidable form at the moment, but the match will be contested on clay, Nadal’s preferred surface.

One cannot discount the effect of playing in front of a raucous home crowd and that is exactly what Nadal has to look forward to in a couple of days time!

Although Spain and Serbia have never met in a Davis Cup showdown in the past, the two men know one another’s game intimately, having gone head-to-head on fourteen occasions. It will not come as a surprise that the feisty Spaniard leads the career record by a veritable mile, having won 10 of the battles on court.

Online bookmaker, bet365, is offering odds on the outright winner of the 2009 Davis Cup and Spain is right up there as the clear favourite at 2/1. Serbia, at 10/1, is behind Russia (5/1) and the USA (6/1).

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