Men’s junior basketball selection of Serbia won bronze at the European Championship in Lithuania and Latvia. The main national basketball team lost to Montenegro with 73:71, in a qualifier match for the European Championship. Best Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic was defeated in the final of the Cincinnati tournament by Roger Federer with 2:0. In the second round of the national football championship the newcomers in the Superleague presented a first-rate surprise by triumphing over Partizan with 2:1. Petar Popovic has prepared today’s Sports Roundup.
Men’s junior basketball selection of Serbia has won the bronze medal at the European Championship in Lithuania and Latvia, after beating the Russian team in the match for the third place with the result 66:56. Our young representatives played an excellent game and confirmed they are a talented generation. After such a great performance, they can only feel even more sorry for losing what was an already won match against Lithuania in the semi-final, because it is clear our team belonged to the final. In the final match, the host team of Lithuania was defeated by Croatia.
In the second round of qualifications for senior European Championship, the Serbian national team gambled away the 13 points lead in the last period of the match, and lost to Montenegro with 73:71 in the Belgrade Arena. 18-year old Montenegrin player Nikola Ivanovic scored the decisive point with the sound of the siren, shooting from his own half of the court! Five minutes before the end, nothing was indicating that the visiting team would celebrate. Namely, after a lot of struggle with distance shots, the Serbian selection came to 13 points lead, and then they allowed it to melt away, while the young star of the Montenegrin team emerged triumphant with a shot that will be remembered for a long time. Our representatives will play the next match against Estonia in Novi Sad on August 23.
Even after fourth attempt, Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic did not manage to win the Masters tournament in Cincinnati, as he was bested in the final by roger Federer, with the result 2;0. Djokovic played the final of the Cincinnati tournament three times – in 2008, 2009 and 2011, but did not win the trophy. The main cause for the defeat by Federer lies with the fact that in the first set Djokovic could not take a single game, while the Swiss was brilliant. Nothing worked for our player during this match, and in the end he said he head made lot of mistakes and congratulated Federer for the victory.
The second round of the national football championship was played last weekend. The major surprise was the match in which the team of Donji Srem bested title defendants - Partizan with the result 2:1, while the Red Star played a tie match as a host team against Rad. In other matches of the second round, the following results were achieved: BSK - Sloboda 1:0, Hajduk - Radnički Niš 1:2, Smederevo - Javor 0:5, Spartak - Vojvodina 0:1 and Jagodina - OFK Belgrade 1:0. At the moment, Donji Srem is leading the ranks with six points, followed by Novi Pazar and Vojvodina, which have four points each.