Davis cup: Preparations to raid neighbours begin

New Delhi, January 22

Braving cold conditions, the Indian Davis Cup team began its preparatory camp for the upcoming grasscourt tie against Pakistan, keen to find a second singles player in the absence of the top-ranked Indian Sumit Nagal.

Country’s top singles players — Nagal (ranked 137) and Sasikumar Mukund (ranked 463) — have pulled out of the February 3-4 tie in Islamabad.

Their absence means that Ramkumar Ramanathan is the only singles specialist player in the team.

Captain Rohit Rajpal has to choose between Yuki Bhambri and N Sriram Balaji to play the second singles.

Bhambri, at 61 in the ATP doubles list, is the team’s highest-ranked player and will certainly play the doubles rubber as well. Veteran Rohan Bopanna, who is India’s best doubles player, has retired from the Davis Cup.

Niki Poonacha is also an option but he is ranked as low as 783 and the team may not field him in singles.

Both Bhambri and Balaji took a day off since they travelled straight from Melbourne after competing in the Australian Open.

Ramkumar, Poonacha and Saketh Myneni had a light session that lasted two-and-a-half hours.

They had two hitting partners — Udit Kamboj and Maan Kesharwani — from the National Tennis Centre (NTC) to help them warm up.

“They are all coming from tournaments. The idea is to get warmed up nicely. Grasscourts require a different type of momentum. Lot of running, short sprints to the net, serve and volley. The tempo will build up as we go along,” Rajpal said.

“We will make a decision on our second singles players in a couple of days. I have to see the players, how they play on grass,” he added. “Pakistan have beaten good teams on grass so we have to prepare well and not take anything for granted. They know how to put pressure on grass, how to come in (charge net), we need try to and get used to that. We are planning our preparations accordingly, lot of drills are based on that.”