Davis Cup 2019 - India

[jayakris]

This is a wonderful development. I was at South Club for the wonderful win over Switzerland in 1993, and there was ample space behind the baseline.

Actually 21 feet is ample space and that's all you need for tennis. This 27 ft requirement is something crazy from ITF now.

[knarayen]

This is a wonderful development. I was at South Club for the wonderful win over Switzerland in 1993, and there was ample space behind the baseline. Maybe that court alignment has changed now, but hopefully they'll do the needful to host the Davis Cup.

Aha so it has happened after all. I hope it is South Club. I have to now find a way to make it to the tie. We will need to persuade Ramanathan Krishnan to be present. I will ask him if i am in Chennai next. My cousin buys gas cylinders from his business there.

Prof

[prasen9]

Should be fine on grass-courts especially where the ball would shoot low more than bounce up.

[jaydeep]

Guys book your tickets, it's on the grass at South Club in Kolkata ...

Davis Cup: India to host Italy on grass in Kolkata

Kolkata was chosen as the venue only after the AITA secured two key exemptions from the ITF.

The rules require that World Group and Play-off ties be played at a venue where the space behind the baseline is 27 feet and there is a seating capacity of 4000.

Only DLTA and the centre court at MSLTA (Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex, Pune) fulfill the both requirements but they don't have the grass courts.

[jaydeep]

Also major changes in the selection committee ... The AITA removed Chairman SP Misra and Zeeshan Ali from the senior national selection committee and replaced them with Ankita Bhambri and Vishal Uppal ... They elevated Rohit Rajpal as Chairman.

Selection Committee: Rohit Rajpal (Chairman), Balram Singh, Nandan Bal, Vishal Uppal and Ankita Bhambri

AITA removes Misra, Zeeshan from senior selection committee

[Atithee]

Wouldn’t having Ankita create a conflict of interest with Yuki being in the mix?

[PKBasu]

The selection committee is pretty ludicrous. Rohit Rajpal as chairman?? He had a career-high ATP singles ranking of 534!! One of the failed products of BAT (Britannia Amritraj Tennis) academy. How could he become chairman of selectors??! He is also president of DLTA, which probably explains much more!

[knarayen]

Actually being a good and fair tennis administrator has little to do with their previous tennis ranking.

[prasen9]

True. But, PKB's point still stands. What has Rohit Rajpal done? I could be an excellent administrator. But, I have to prove my chops. If not, it is better to get someone like Somdev (maybe he does not want to) who has at least provided some good ideas on how to improve tennis in India. So the point really is why him? Also, note that the selector position is actually more tennis-related than say someone who is working on more administrative stuff such as raising money, building infrastructure, doing PR, etc. They need to have some idea about conditions in different places, players, etc. Admittedly that is obtainable by second-hand information but if someone has done it, then they should be better at bringing that expertise in. Maybe they did not get anyone better than Rajpal? The other explanation is as PKB provided. It is just politics among administrators.

It is a completely stupid decision to have Ankita in the committee. She must recuse herself when they discuss Yuki.

[VReddy]

@Prasen9: AITA = Khanna = Delhi from my perspective as an outsider. I think 4 of the 5 are from Delhi. I shouldn't be saying this when Ankita is one of the chose members as I feel its a good addition (leaving aside the conflict part). Its not against the individual members actually but my point is what message do you send to a body in Karnataka / Tamil Nadu / Andhra / Maharashtra which continue to provide our best players decade after decade.

[prasen9]

Agree with you fully. This type of nepotism is bad for the country. The selector does not necessarily need to be from different places but at least the person has to have some resume/capability either as a young player just retired or work they have done as an administrator. I suppose it is too much to ask

[jaydeep]

Mahesh's interview.

Never had this kind of depth in Indian tennis: Mahesh Bhupathi

[sameerph]

Article on our prospects on grass courts -

India high on grass ahead of Davis Cup tie against Italy

As per some other reports, the team is going to be getting together a week or 10 days ahead and going to have a camp on grass courts at Kolkata which will be good.

[jayakris]

India high on grass ahead of Davis Cup tie against Italy

Is grass allowed? I know spinach isn't.

[jaydeep]

The new AITA selection committee has announced the team for the World Group Qualifier tie against Italy ... The announcement is more than a month before the tie and the selection was as per current rankings of the players ... As expected, Divij Sharan makes a return in place of Balaji, also Mukund is included in place of Arjun as a reserve player ... Yuki doesn't consider for the tie due to his on-going recovery from the knee injury ... Sumit Nagal, Arjun Kadhe, and Siddharth Vishwakarma will train with the team at a preparatory camp from January 22 to 30, 2019.

The Indian Davis Cup Team:
Prajnesh Gunneswaran, Ramkumar Ramanathan, Divij Sharan, Rohan Bopanna, Saketh Myneni and Sasi Kumar Mukund
Non-playing Captain: Mahesh Bhupathi
Coach: Zeeshan Ali