The 21-year-old knew that victory in the fourth rubber would seal victory for Britain, who led 2-1 after Edmund’s win over Janko Tipsarevic in the first singles clash and Jamie Murray and Dom Inglot’s victory in Saturday’s doubles.
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In the second singles rubber, postponed for Saturday due to heavy rain, Lajovic defeated James Ward 6-1, 6-3, 6-2.
Andy Murray admits that he has been surprised by the rapid progress of Kyle Edmund, who guided Great Britain to the Davis Cup semi-finals over the weekend.
Meanwhile, Team France made history when they defeated Czech Republic for the first time away from home since 1926.
British number one Andy Murray chose to travel to Belgrade just as a supporter for the tie.
“We left nothing to chance, we have been together all the time”.
A break of serve in the opening game of the fourth set put them on their way and they held their nerve all the way to 5-4, when Inglot, looking for his first Davis Cup win, was tasked with serving it out for the match.
It might just have been enough to fire up Lajovic, who got his first sniff of a break point on the Edmund serve, and with both players having to take huge swipes out of the ball, Edmund fought off the attack.
“It was ideal, I am really happy”, said French captain Yannick Noah after the 3-1 victory.
Lajovic sent a wild backhand way wide to give Edmund a match point and the Briton converted when Lajovic hit another backhand wide.
“We have a new generation that came into the locker room”.
All this means that while British tennis lovers booking corporate hospitality for the ATP World Tour Finals this November to see the likes of Murray and Djokovic may be able to look forward to more great rivalries in the future, with Edmund battling it out with the likes of Dominic Thiem, Nick Kyrgios and Milos Raonic for the big prizes four or five years from now.
‘I thought he played great in both of the matches.
“It definitely doesn’t suit my game”. He was the better player today.
“I was disappointed the way we lost that but I was still confident and calm that we would prevail over four or five sets”. Inglot wasn’t returning that well but they came together when it mattered. I feel a little bit disappointed that I didn’t use them. I was feeling it at the end but so was he.
Britain’s captain Leon Smith will not be thinking about the semi-finals, not least since Britain led Italy 2-1 in Naples a couple of years ago before going down 3-2. The second was more damaging as it gave Britain a 5-3 lead and Inglot served out the third set with two consecutive aces.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga sent France into the last-four after beating Jiri Vesely of the Czech Republic to hand his team an unassailable 3-1 lead in Trinec.
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Inglot sat on the sidelines for three out of the four ties previous year as the Murray brothers took centre stage but he and Jamie were favourites to beat Zimonjic, a classy but fading doubles force at the age of 40, and the inexperienced Krajinovic.
