Davis Cup: Ramkumar Ramanathan to begin India’s campaign against Serbia

A depleted Indian side will aim for a major upset in the Davis Cup when they take on the fifth-seeded, but star-short Serbia in the World Group play-off tie, starting Friday.

While the Indian selection committee decided to leave out veteran Leander Paes, India’s top-most ranked singles player Yuki Bhambri decided to sit out of the crucial tie owing to a knee injury. Serbia too has their share of problems after Wimbledon and US Open champion Novak Djokovic and world number 33 Filip Krajinovic opted out of the tie.

India’s Ramkumar Ramanathan will face Laslo Djere of Serbia in the opening encounter of the tie on Friday. While the Serbian Djere at 86 is ranked higher than the 135^th ranked Ramkumar, he is yet to win a match in the Davis Cup. Ramkumar on the other has more experience, having already played six-ties with a 7-5 win-loss record.

In the other match of the day, Asian Games bronze medallist Prajnesh Gunneswaran will face the Serbia number one Dusan Lajovic, who at the number 56 is the highest ranked player in the play-off tie between both the sides.

Rohan Bopanna and N Sriram Balaji will then play the doubles match on Saturday against the home pair of Nikola Milojevic and debutant Danilo Petrovic.

On Sunday, Ramkumar will face Dusan Lajovic in the reverse singles-tie, while Prajnesh will square off against Laslo Djere.

Although Serbia is a tough opponent and superior to the Indians, the subcontinent side has more experience than the home team. The Indian players present has played a combined total of 43 times in the Davis Cup far more when compared to Serbia’s only 14.

“Novak is not playing, so everyone else is beatable if we play well. It will be tough certainly. But we have a chance. We need to take the opportunities we get,” said Prajnesh quoted PTI.

Meanwhile, coach Zeeshan Ali played down India’s No.1 ranked absence in the important tie.

“Not having Yuki while playing on the clay court is not a big setback for us. Looking at the last nine months, Yuki has played one odd or two matches on clay. His ranking is higher than other two players but his game is not suited for clay. It would have been great to have him on the team but it still is not a great setback considering the surface,” Zeeshan said reported the news agency.

“The good things is, that people like Ramkumar, Prajnesh and Balaji, they have been training in Europe on clay for the last few years. It’s not a new surface for these players. They are used to playing on clay. Ten years back, we did not have players, who could play on clay but now it is different,” he added.

Saketh Myneni is the fifth playing member of the squad, while Arjun Kadhe has been kept as a reserve player.

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