Alex de Minaur's brutal warning amid Novak Djokovic Davis Cup drama

Alex de Minaur has sent a warning to his rivals ahead of the Davis Cup final with Novak Djokovic's Serbia looming as a potential opponent. Hewitt's call to play Alexei Popyrin in the singles paid off as the 24-year-old and de Minaur won their matches in straight sets to send Australia into back-to-back Davis Cup finals.

Australia are looking to end a 20-year wait to lift the tennis trophy in Spain, but will have to go through either a Djokovic-led Serbian outfit or Jannik Sinner's Italy. Djokovic would line-up against de Minaur in the singles if the two nations were to meet in the final.

UGLY: Djokovic caught up in ugly crowd drama in Davis Cup victory for Serbia

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The pair last met at the Australian Open, which saw Djokovic stop de Minaur's momentum in straight sets on his way to a 22nd grand slam title. De Minaur has never defeated the 36-year-old great, but it didn't stop him sending out a warning to his potential rivals after producing two amazing matches to send Australia through to the final.

"No-one really wants to play us," the World No.12 said after his victory. With Max Purcell and Matt Ebden dominating the doubles and Popyrin producing the goods, there is a reason Australia has reached the final two years in a row.

"We're a very solid squad, a lot of depth in every single position, and if we can get ourselves to a deciding doubles, we've got an unbelievable pairing as well," de Minaur said after the tie. "So we singles guys have just got do our best to try and get a win and let the doubles guys do the job.

"Hopefully we can go one better this year," he added, recalling the 2-0 defeat by Canada in 2022. However, they face a tough task in whoever they face with Djokovic on a mission after a run-in with the crowd in Spain after Serbia's win over Great Britain.

Novak Djokovic fired up after ugly crowd incident

Djokovic's win over Cameron Norrie in the quarter-final was marred by some unsavoury scenes during his post-match speech on court, when British fans tried to drown out his victory speech by pounding on drums. The 36-year-old could be heard telling the rowdy supporters to "shut up" and show some respect by allowing him to conduct his interview.

Djokovic also had a running battle with the same set of supporters during the match and could be seen cupping his hand to his ear after winning a point in the second set following a disturbance from the British fans. “The entire match pretty much, there was disrespect but it’s something I have to be prepared for in the Davis Cup,” Djokovic told reporters.

“It’s normal that fans step over the line and in the heat of the moment you react too and in a way show that you don’t allow this kind of behaviour. They can do whatever they want but I’m going to respond to that.” Djokovic said his outburst towards the British supporters during his post-match interview was a culmination of what had happened previously on court.

“I was trying to talk and they purposely started to play the drums, to not let me talk,” he added. “They were trying to annoy me the entire match, so we had a little bit of a chat in the end.” Djokovic will play Sinner for the third time in two weeks at the Davis Cup, having recently defeated the Italian in Turin to lift the ATP Finals trophy.

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