Indian Davis Cup team started preparations for the match against Pakistan
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The Indian Davis Cup team has started preparations for the upcoming Davis Cup match against Pakistan on grass courts in a camp organized in bitter cold. In this preparation camp, the team’s focus will be on practice and deciding the player who will play the second singles match.
The country’s top singles players Sumit Nagal (ranked 137) and Shashi Kumar Mukund (ranked 463) have withdrawn their names from the match to be held on February 3 and 4 in Islamabad. His absence means Ramkumar Ramanathan is the only singles specialist player in the team. Captain Rohit Rajpal will have to choose between Yuki Bhambri and N Sriram Balaji to play the second singles. Bhambri, ranked 61st in the ATP doubles rankings, is the team’s highest-ranked player. It is almost certain that they will play doubles.
India’s best doubles player, veteran Rohan Bopanna has retired from Davis Cup. The team also has an option in Nikki Punacha but his ranking is 783. The team would like to avoid the risk of fielding him in singles. Both Bhambri and Balaji traveled straight from Melbourne after competing in the Australian Open and took a day off. Ramkumar, Poonacha and Saketh Myneni took part in a light practice session that lasted for two and a half hours.
At the ‘National Tennis Center (NTC)’, these three players had two assistants in the form of Udit Kamboj and Maan Kesarwani to help them in ‘warm up’. Rajpal told PTI, “All these players are coming to participate in the tournament. We plan to practice well. A different kind of rhythm is required on a rough court. It involves a lot of running and using the net well. We will gain momentum as we progress. We will decide on our second singles player in two-three days. I have seen players playing on grass courts.
Rajpal said, “Pakistan has defeated better teams on grass courts, so we will have to improve our preparation and not take anything lightly.” Their players know how to use grass courts. We have to adjust to this. We are planning our preparation accordingly, a lot of exercises are based on that. Indian coach Zeeshan Ali also admitted that it will be challenging for the players to adjust to the grass court. He said, “These players do not get a chance to play much on grass. Adapting to the surface is the key to success. This is what we will work on in this camp.
Disclaimer: IndiaTheNews has not edited this news. This news has been published from PTI-language feed.
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