Novak Djokovic beat Chris Guccione in straight sets here on Sunday to give Serbia a 3-1 lead and dump Australia into Davis Cup wilderness for only the second time in their proud history.
Spurred on by a rowdy home crowd of 20,000 in the massive Beogradska Arena, US Open finalist and world No. 3 Djokovic overcame the stubborn Guccione 6-3, 7-6 (7/3), 7-6 (7/5) in two hours and 59 minutes.
The world No. 94 put up a fight in the second and third sets but failed to rescue Australia after being called up in place of their best player, former world No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt, who was bed-ridden with a bout of gastroenteritis.
The lanky left-hander eventually caved in to Djokovic, whose third victory in the best-of-five match tie banished Australia from the elite stages of the prestigious competition.
The win before the third-largest crowd in the Davis Cup's 108-year history also promotes Serbia to the competition's World Group for the first time since 1991, when Australia trashed then Yugoslavia 5-0.
In a re-match of January's ATP final in Adelaide, won by Djokovic, the 22-year-old Aussie made a nervy start, immediately losing his opening service game.
But after breaking back for 3-3, Guccione was broken again in the eighth game when a fired-up Djokovic raised his game with a flurry of powerful groundstrokes and soft touches.
The 20-year-old Serb sensation served out the following game to seal the first set in 40 minutes, causing the partisan home supporters to erupt into rapturous applause.
Guccione, who had only won one of his four previous Davis Cup encounters on clay, immediately lost his serve again in the opening game of the second set as Djokovic continued to dictate play.
He fought again back, however, and the pair traded service games until they reached a tie-break, where Djokovic unleashed an ace and fierce forehand pass before sealing it 7-3 in a set that took 70 minutes.
In the third set, Guccione fended off the first match point by rifling down two aces in the 10th game, before they went into another tie-break.
Djokovic fought back from 5-2 points down to seal the match and promotion 7-5 in the tie-breaker, before he was carried around the court on the shoulders of his teammates to chants of "Nole, Nole, Nole."
On the tie's opening day, Djokovic had breezed past Peter Luczak in straight sets before Hewitt staged a typical fightback to beat Janko Tipsarevic in a five-set thriller.
Djokovic and Nenad Zimonjic had themselves fought back from a set down in Saturday's doubles rubber against Hewitt and Paul Hanley before they sealed a 2-1 advantage going in to Sunday's reverse singles.
In Sunday's dead rubber, world No. 53 Tipsarevic is scheduled to face Luczak, the 91st-ranked Australian.
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