Serbia captain Viktor Troicki elected to go with world number 69 Kecmanovic ahead of more experienced options and it looked to have paid off as the player rose to the task. Kecmanovic did little wrong but just could not put away his opponent in a match that veered one way and the other. He came back from 2-5 down in the deciding set and saved four match points before converting his fifth match point in a nerve-jangling tiebreak to win 7-6(5) 4-6 7-6(11). Kazakhstan moved tantalisingly close to the semi-finals when the 33-year-old Kukushkin came through a three-hour-18-minute battle against the 22-year-old Kecmanovic. Serbia will take on Croatia on Friday in Madrid with the other semi-final between Germany and either the Russian Federation or Sweden. "I'm proud of the fighting spirit we dropped off in the second set but we bounced back and held our nerves, I'm proud of Nikola and proud of this team," Djokovic said on court. Kazakhstan, who were cheered throughout by a noisy band of followers in the Madrid Arena, have now lost all six Davis Cup quarter-finals they have contested. When Cacic, who had struggled during the second set, drilled a low return to enable Serbia to clinch victory on their third match point, Djokovic and his team mates celebrated loudly. Djokovic has played five out of a possible six rubbers at the Davis Cup Finals so far and looks in the mood to take the team to the title they won memorably in Belgrade in 2010.