Davis Cup 2017 - India

[Prashant]

Ridiculous. Supposedly we are good at doubles, but we can't field a team that like opposite sides of the court. Whatever. If we must persist in this whole playing two doubles players thing, at least pick a TEAM. RB needs to be put out to pasture along with LP & MB.

Since everyone things Shapovalov will beat RamK it will be moot, but who thinks Yuki could play 5 sets tomorrow if necessary? I certainly don't.

[cricketics]

Guys, here are my suggestions, and please tell me what you think of these teams.

My first option is - Divij/Purav. I feel they have played together and Purav will do better when he plays with his regular partner which is Divij and will surely perform better than what e did today with Bopanna.

Then comes the option of Rohan/Divij for me. I think this left/right combo can be a brutal combo for Davis cup too. I think Divij played really well in his first round loss at US Open to eventual finalist Lopez/Lopez. I was courside and I do feel he has gotten a lot better in doubles and can be the deal in doubles with any decent partner and with Bopanna's serve, he can be a really good pair for our Davis cup doubles team.

[Abish arul]

divij sharan is a better doubles player than purav I still don't know why they are keep picking purav raja ahead of sharan.

[PKBasu]

Thanks for being there, Florian, and for the excellent match report.

There is no doubt that we gifted the doubles away because of MB's eagerness to keep Leander out of the team. When Saket was unfit, we should have picked Leander -- and if Rohan wouldn't have him as partner, we should have gone with Leander-Divij or the working pair of Leander-Purav. Putting a scratch pair into a Davis Cup match is to give up most of the advantage.

[jaydeep]

Thanks Florian for supporting our team in person and your interesting update about matches.

At Davis Cup 2017 - World Group Play-off, Edmonton, Canada

India vs Canada 1-2

Day One
[R1] Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,154) bt Brayden Schnur (CAN,202) 57 76(4) 75 75
[R2] Yuki Bhambri (IND,157) l Denis Shapovalov (CAN,51) 67(2) 46 76(6) 64 16

Day Two
[R3] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) l Daniel Nestor (CAN)/ Vasek Pospisil (CAN) 57 57 75 36

[Sin Hombre]

^Not at all.

We lost the tie because Purav is a poor player at this level.

I agree with cricketics on Bopanna/Divij or even Bopanna/Yuki would have had a much better chance.

It is a lack of strategic thinking. Our best chances of winning the tie were by beating Canada #2 and winning the doubles, and based off the team in Canada, we should have had Yuki play doubles and only the second singles.

[knarayen]

^Not at all.

We lost the tie because Purav is a poor player at this level.

I agree with cricketics on Bopanna/Divij or even Bopanna/Yuki would have had a much better chance.

It is a lack of strategic thinking. Our best chances of winning the tie were by beating Canada #2 and winning the doubles, and based off the team in Canada, we should have had Yuki play doubles and only the second singles.

Based on Yuki physical condition, this option makes sense. We however would be putting a scratch doubles team in, regardless of who yuki would be partnering - and this in my view again is too risky for a match at the WG qualifying level. The right thing to have done, many months ago, would have been to start grooming a real doubles team from a younger group of players. A DC captain, especially a former grand slam champion, could at least get this going? He could have then sprung this unknown team into the tie. Spain routinely did this during their development with players like Emilio Sanchez (yes, the same Emilio). By the way i agree with Florian - this team functions more like a team under Hesh. I liked the way RamK and others stood behind Yuki at the start of the 5th, to let everyone know that they were all behind him. I also hope that RamK can bring some of that great Spain team thinking into this group. He will set that example along with Som. Others will follow. The doubles void needs urgently to be filled.

[PKBasu]

Rohan/Yuki would have been another good pairing. And Yuki/Divij have had quite a lot of success at the Challenger level. (And Yuki made the AO last-16 in doubles the year he and Venus won the Asian doubles wildcard). But all that would be predicated on Yuki being supremely fit, which is currently just not the reality. I don't think we could have gambled beforehand on throwing anyone else into the singles on the opening day (Saket perhaps, but not in his current demonstrated level of form; in fact I don't see why Saketh has been hanging around the team if he wasn't fit and ready).

[sameerph]

True, picking Saketh in the first place was a bad mistake and we talked about it a lot on the forum. Also our # 3 singles player ( Prajnesh currently) is nowhere near the levels of top 2- Yuki and RamK. So, keeping him to play the first match against Shapovalov would have been gifting 1 point away. Yuki run Shapavolov close. So, it was not a certain lost point by any means.

In such circumstances, only option would be to select either Purav, Divij or Leander to partner Rohan. At their current levels, it is a marginal choice between them. So, I don't think we had too much of a chance to field a much better combination than the one that played.

Posipisil really controlled the match when Nestor was way below his best and Purav's weaker served proved decisive ( first 2 sets were lost with Purav serving at 5-6.)

[Varma]

Pospisil has a grandslam doubles title, so he is supposedly better than Rohan. With him partnering a legend in Nestor, our chances were slim to begin with. The best to countered such pair would be field a proper pair. Based on that, my first choice would have been DiPu. The only way they could have made it was their credentials as a regular pair. If that was not considered, every other selection parameter would have become murky since Rohan had to be picked due to his higher ranking. Anyway, now let's hope against hope that RamK somehow beats Shapovalov and gives a chance to Yuki to close it out.

- Varma

[PKBasu]

Sameer, you really think there is nothing to choose between Leander (on the one hand) and Divij or Purav (on the other) when it comes to Davis Cup? Leander has a career score of 42-13 in doubles, while even Rohan Bopanna has a mere 8-7 record (with several of those wins coming in partnership with Leander). He may have a similar ranking to Divij and Purav, but he brings something special to Davis Cup -- as we saw in the match against Spain, and even more dramatically against Serbia a few years ago (Zimonjic-Bozoljac, who lost in 5 sets to Leander-Rohan).
Keeping Leander out of the team out of spite was asinine (not to say vindictive).

[rajitghosh]

The glory days of doubles are over. Over the next few years people will realizability the enormity of Leander ' s achievements. I see Indian tennis sinking further over the next few years.

[knarayen]

The glory days of doubles are over. Over the next few years people will realizability the enormity of Leander ' s achievements. I see Indian tennis sinking further over the next few years.

I on the contrary see Indian tennis improve considerably over the next few years, with or without Hesh at the DC helm. Some mistakes were made in this Canada tie, but the guys will learn. Saketh will return to the team, adding some depth in Singles, and some flexibility in doubles as well. Yuki will improve, health as well. In fact, I see another golden age coming up - RamK will mature as well and be a mainstay on the team, encouraging the team in the Spanish mold. A good doubles combo will emerge, least of all because a good career in doubles is still possible on the tour.

Prof

[knarayen]

The glory days of doubles are over. Over the next few years people will realizability the enormity of Leander ' s achievements. I see Indian tennis sinking further over the next few years.

I on the contrary see Indian tennis improve considerably over the next few years, with or without Hesh at the DC helm. Some mistakes were made in this Canada tie, but the guys will learn. Saketh will return to the team, adding some depth in Singles, and some flexibility in doubles as well. Yuki will improve, health as well. In fact, I see another golden age coming up - RamK will mature as well and be a mainstay on the team, encouraging the team in the Spanish mold. A good doubles combo will emerge, least of all because a good career in doubles is still possible on the tour.

Leander is a Legend- he like Nestor has been a mainstay and his loss is being felt, but this team is starting to function as one, and another good doubles combo Will emerge.

Prof

[VReddy]

The glory days of doubles are over. Over the next few years people will realizability the enormity of Leander ' s achievements. I see Indian tennis sinking further over the next few years.

I think we are headed for a mini (in comparison to 80's) golden age too. I personally value Singles over Doubles anyday. The depth of talent we have now - I have never seen since I have started following Tennis more closely from the early 2000s (Yuki, Ram, Sumit, Saki, Prajnesh.. / Karman, Pranjala, Zeel, Mihika, Mahek, etc,.). Ofcourse we will not win Grand Slams but am pretty sure we are looking at 3-4 players regularly playing on the ATP / WTA and Challenger tours with some top quality wins few times a year.

The only time we were this good in the last 15 years was probably when we had Sania / Shikha / Ankita / Sunitha / Neha playing on the Womens side at the same time. With Somdev at the helm now in Delhi, hopefully we will have the right structure built in too!