Djokovic inspires Serbia to doubles win over Russia

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic shrugged off flu-like symptoms to rescue Serbia's Davis Cup hopes against Russia on Saturday.

Djokovic, playing his first match since winning his maiden grand slam title in Melbourne last month, joined forces with Nenad Zimonjic to thrash Russians Mikhail Youzhny and Dmitry Tursunov 6-3 7-6 7-6 in the doubles of their first-round tie.

The win kept alive Serbia's chances to pull off a near impossible comeback in the three-day World Group tie at Moscow's Luzhniki arena after the Russians had won both of their singles matches on Friday.

Russia, 2006 champions and last year's finalists, still lead 2-1 and need just one more victory in the two reverse singles on Sunday to advance to the quarter-finals.

(Reporting by Gennady Fyodorov; editing by Pritha Sarkar)