France's Michael Llodra believes that beating Novak Djokovic at the Paris Masters will count for little in the Davis Cup final.
Serbia host France at the prestigious team tournament finale in Belgrade this weekend, and despite his recent victory over the world number three, Llodra admitted ATP Tour events hold little bearing when it comes to the pressure of Davis Cup tennis.
"Yes it's good, I beat Djokovic in Bercy, but as you know Davis Cup is totally different than ATP events. It's good for me and my confidence," the left-handed Llodra said.
Djokovic said his loss to Llodra in Paris was likely due to fatigue after the US Open, and this time around he would be fresh for the fight.
"It's not the situation that I had after the US Open, which was much more difficult to get used to, you know, travelling from (the) States and arriving Wednesday," Djokovic said.
"This time, I came here (Belgrade) on Sunday so I had two days to rest little bit and now I am ready to practice and you know to do my best throughout the weekend."
France are without Jo-Wilfried Tsonga for the final due to a knee injury, but captain Guy Forget sent a reminder that the world number 13 has not featured heavily in his side's campaign this year.
"Of course, when you have someone like Jo that is not in the team, that's, it's minus, but on the other hand, these guys here, made the finals, almost without Jo, so I mean they really deserve to be in the finals," Forget said.
"Now, you know Jo is a strong supporter of the team and he will be here to cheer his friends."
Serbia captain Bogdan Obradovic said he was confident his side could claim the necessary three ties to win the final on a hard-court surface favoured to suit the locals at the Belgrade Arena.
"Well the surface is of course prepared for my team, they like to play on this surface, you already know that we beat a couple of teams on this surface especially in Croatia, same surface against Czech Republic, so that's the only reason we made the decision to play on this surface," Obradovic said.