In less than 24 hours, India will be up against New Zealand in Christchurch in the Davis Cup Group-I Asia/Oceania second-round clash. At stake is a place in the World Group playoffs.
After the agonising 3-2 loss to Serbia in last year’s playoff, India will seek one more shot at getting back into the World Group — a territory it has not inhabited since 2011.
On paper, India looks way better. Each of its frontline singles players — Somdev Devvarman and Yuki Bhambri — is ranked close to the 150-mark. Devvarman is now 148 and Bhambri 151.
On the other hand, New Zealand’s top two — Jose Statham and Michael Venus — are 345 and 548 respectively. In Marcus Daniell and Artem Sitak, though, the Kiwis have two top-50 players to take on Rohan Bopanna and Saketh Myneni in the doubles.
But, then, rarely is a Davis Cup tie won on paper.
“Weather!” said coach Zeeshan Ali when asked about the main concern. “It’s going to be the height of winter there (about 10 degrees Celsius). Even if indoors (on hard-court) it is going to be very cold. It’s known that we aren’t quite comfortable playing in the cold.”
Form-wise, Bhambri has had a steady year, with his serve seeing much improvement. Devvarman comes into the tie on the back of a win at the AC Nielson Pro Challenger in Winnekta, U.S.A.
Bopanna too has had a fulfilling grass-court season, and, in Myneni, the team has the perfect utility man, who, though chosen for doubles, can play singles too as his ranking of 198 indicates.
Zeeshan said they were working on getting Devvarman to be tad more aggressive. “While hanging behind the baseline, he sometimes tends to fall into a trap. He pegs himself way back,” Zeeshan said.
“Somdev relies so much on his legs,” concurred captain Anand Amritraj. “As you get older you can’t run down every ball. He still is one of the quickest, but needs to be a bit more aggressive.”
With Davis Cup play stipulating that the second-best players meet in the final rubber, something the team would have considered an advantage till a week back was Devvarman, with all his experience, being India’s No.2.
However, Devvarman’s triumph in the Winnekta Challenger over the last weekend has seen him leapfrog Bhambri in the rankings. Not that the team will consider that a set-back; the much improved Bhambri is hardly a weak fifth-rubber player.
http://www.thehindu.com/sport/india-seeks-a-world-group-playoff-berth/article7426116.ece
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