Indians look to exploit grass court advantage

Deepankar Sharda

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 10

Indian tennis stars Rohan Bopanna, Vishnu Vardhan and Ramkumar Ramanathan reached Chandigarh Club in Sector 1 barely an hour after landing in Chandigarh. Clearly, they don’t want to waste a minute as they plan to exploit the hot and humid conditions in their Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Group-I tie against South Korea, to be played on July 15-17.

Profusely sweating on the grass court especially prepared to favour the Indian team, these players practised under the watchful eye of non-playing captain Anand Amritraj and coach Zeeshan Ali. The two were impressed with the courts but were also concerned about the Indian players’ approach for the Davis cup.

“We are having an advantage of playing on the grass courts. This is what we had asked for. Now the players need to learn the basics quick,” said Amritraj while taking to the media at the venue. His view was seconded by coach Ali. “Yes, the turf is looking good and our boys Bopanna, Saket and Vardhan have played on grass courts lately. This will help us in the coming weekend.”

Discussing his plans for the tie, Ali said that the experience of Bopanna and Paes would be very helpful. “We have ample experience in the squad. Bopanna and Paes would teach the young boys many things in the tie. We are not relying on past records but are more focused on playing on grass courts, which is quite difficult in such weather,” said Ali.

Amritraj believes that this Davis cup tie will be a golden platform for young legs like Saket, Vardhan and Ramkumar. “Ramkumar and Vardhan will be featuring in the singles tie and it is the best possible platform for them to fill in the boots of Paes or Bopanna,” said Amritraj. “These players are India’s future and should avail this opportunity and bring out their best. The conditions are favourable but we need to follow the ball and move swiftly in the 8.23 metres of area.”

Discussing the opponents, the duo said that while the South Koreans may have low-ranked players, they are as dangerous as the Spanish or Czech players because of their athleticism. “One thing we all may be unaware of is that the South Koreans are better and quick athletes,” said Amritraj. “We are not looking at their rankings. If we consider their rankings, we can say that we are the winners already. But they were really good when we played them last. Although that was on hard courts, and we are not taking things lightly.”

The last time the two teams met was in 2014, when India trounced the Koreans 3-1. The Indians have won six times against the Koreans out of the 10 times they’ve clashed in the Davis Cup.

“Playing in Chandigarh takes me back to the past when I and Paes played the Davis Cup here. It was Paes’ first Davis cup. We won the fifth set 18-16 against (Shuzo) Matsuoka and (Shigeru) Ota. Paes won his first ITF juniors title here in 1989. So it’s good to be here with the same person and performing a bigger role” said Ali over his experince on playing in the city.

“Don’t mind, but we are not having good coaches to train kids after they shift from junior to senior level. Tennis is the second most popular game after cricket in India and we should have a uniformed pyramid form of structure to find the talent. We should have mass participation in junior tennis and the best should train for the highest level,” said Amritraj, on junior coahing level in India.