The Daily Forehand Talks to Janko Tipsarevic

Forty-first ranked Serbian Janko Tipsarevic pulled off the biggest upset of the tournament so far on Wednesday by upsetting sixth-seed Sam Querrey, whom he had lost to during Querrey's title run last week in Los Angeles. 

Before that match (just after his first round encounter with Arnaud Clement), I sat down with Janko to discuss Davis Cup, his recent nuptuals, and his new found Twitter habit.

TDF: Congratulations on your win today [6-4 6-0 over Arnaud Clement].  You had a slow start, going down 0-3 and losing 12 of the first 14 points--what helped you to come back from that so well?

Janko Tipsarevic: You know what? I was just taking it point-by-point. Arnaud is very difficult to play sometimes 'cause he's so quick around the court, and he made a very good start.  After that, I broke, and he started serving dramatically worse.  There were a couple of close games, like deuce, advantage, deuce advantage, where I managed to win.  And then when I made a double break in the second set, I just felt like he gave up.

TDF: You're playing a very full US Open Series schedule, with Atlanta, Los Angeles, and now Washington.  What made you decide to play so much during this time of the year?

Janko Tipsarevic: I didn't play almost any tournaments from Dubai until Queens.  I was, like, sick, and injured, and out of the circuit for three months.  So I know it's a long and hard tour, but I need to play tournaments since I skipped almost one quarter of the year.

TDF: You're on the Serbian Davis Cup team, which is in the semifinals now against the Czech Republic.  And Serbia is hosting the tie in Belgrade.  Do you think Serbia will win the Davis Cup this year?

Janko Tipsarevic: Well, in Davis Cup, it's a cliche what I'm going to say, but everybody can beat everybody.  You know that already.  But we are the host, and we have now the #2 player in the world in singles, and the #1 player in doubles.  And as the host, people expect us to win.  Viktor and me are around 40-50, which helps, and gives us more options for the doubles and who pairs up with Nenad [Zimonjic]. 

But Berdych is playing the tennis of his life, and Stepanek is back, and together they just beat Nestor-Zimonjic here, which means they have really strong doubles.  I would say that we are the small favorites, but I'm talking just about against the Czech Republic.  For the later match, I have no idea.

TDF: You got married just before Davis Cup in Croatia.  Did you have any of the Croatian players at the wedding as well, or just Serbians?

Janko Tipsarevic: Just Serbians.  I invited some of them, but they couldn't come because of the Davis Cup.  I got married the day before in Belgrade, in Serbia, and then we flew to Croatia the next day.

TDF: You're on Twitter, having a lot of fun with that, it looks like.

Janko Tipsarevic: I got hooked up ten days ago, and it's been fun.  You just post things that are on your mind.  I like it more than Facebook, honestly.  And, you know, I just don't feel like tweeting about regular stuff. Like "I won today and I'm playing good"--people don't care about that.  If you have something interesting to say, maybe an interesting picture good.  If not, better to say nothing.

TDF: You've posted a lot on Twitter about your love for The Cheesecake Factory.  There's one about a mile from here--

Janko Tipsarevic: Oh really?

TDF: Yup, yup.  Have you been?

Janko Tipsarevic: Nope, I might go tomorrow after my match then.

TDF: What is your standard order when you go to The Cheesecake Factory?

Janko Tipsarevic: You know what? Everything is so good, so I don't order the same stuff all the time.  Mainly I eat chicken, and the one that I like the most so far is the caramel chicken.