Nur-Sultan (Kazakhstan), Nov 29
A ruthless India raced to a 2-0 lead in their Davis Cup tie for the loss of just two games as Ramkumar Ramanathan and Sumit Nagal toyed with their teen rivals from Pakistan today. In a mismatch of epic proportions, Ramanathan double-bageled 17-year-old Muhammed Shoaib in just 42 minutes in the opening singles. The only time Shoaib made it look like a match was in the sixth game of the second set when he stretched Ramkumar to two deuce points. Sumit Nagal then earned his first-ever Davis Cup win, beating Hufaiza Mohammed Rehman 6-0 6-2 in the second singles which lasted 64 minutes.
Pakistan badly missed their top players, who had pulled out in protest against shifting of the tie from Islamabad to this neutral venue over security concerns.
While the first match was not even a contest, promising Pakistani youngster Hufaiza resisted Nagal as much as possible by engaging the Indian in long rallies. Twice the 17-year-old pushed Nagal to deuce points in the second game of the second set and finally put Pakistan on board by holding the third game after squandering four game points. He returned and managed another hold, staying close to Nagal. However, it just delayed the inevitable as Nagal wrapped up the match in the eighth game of the second set.
Veteran Leander Paes and debutant Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan will now look to seal the tie when they clash with Hufaiza and Shoaib in the doubles rubber tomorrow.
India have never lost a Davis Cup tie to Pakistan in six meetings so far and the trend does not look like changing. A win tomorrow will stretch Paes’ record for most number of doubles wins in Davis Cup history. He is leading the chart with 43 wins. The winner of the tie will travel to Croatia for the World Group Qualifiers, to be held on March 6-7.
Going for broke
“Playing for the country always means a lot for me and for every person in India,” said world No. 176 Ramanathan later. “I went in wanting to give my best for every point. I stayed really focused and think that was a good thing. Pakistan’s players are just coming up, but we went in wanting to finish it off quickly. We wanted to play to our strengths and that gave us the win. It’s always good to have an Indian crowd supporting us. It’s always an advantage when you’re playing, and it keeps you going and gives you confidence. It really does help, in any match.”
Nagal, the Indian No.1, said: “I was trying really hard to match Ram’s score – I mean, that was one of my goals.” The world No. 131 won the first 10 games of the match before Rehman got on the board.
“To be honest, I went with the mentality that I want to win this match 6-0 6-0, but he did play well in a few of the games, so I have to give it to him. It always feels good when you go into the match 1-0 up instead of 0-1, because that does put an extra pressure. Ramkumar did well, played well, gave us a fantastic lead – we couldn’t ask for a better score. This is the best start that could have happened for us.” — Agencies
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via Today’s News Headlines
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